A Georgia man has been arrested and accused of perpetuating a fraud and sex trafficking scheme that targeted dozens of NBA and NFL players.
34-year-old Kwamaine Jerell Ford, of Buford, has been charged with nine counts of wire fraud, seven counts of computer fraud, four counts of aggravated identity fraud, one count of access device fraud, and one count of sex trafficking, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia.
Prosecutors alleged that Ford used a phishing scam to get the login credentials for iCloud accounts that belonged to NBA and NFL players. The scam began when he allegedly impersonated a “well-known” adult-film star (identified as “T.T.” in court documents, but named as Teanna Trump in some media reports), and offered to send sexually explicit videos to the players via iCloud.
Next, he posed as an Apple customer support representative and asked victims via text message to give usernames, passwords, and multi-factor authentication codes so that the victim could to get access to the videos that the adult film star was supposedly attempting to send.
Per prosecutors, dozens of people were tricked into giving Ford their account information, which allowed him to get their financial data and spend their money on items for himself.
Prosecutors also alleged that in 2021, Ford recruited a woman to have sex with the athletes. He, pretending again to be T.T., promised the woman (identified only as “C.S.” in court documents) that the encounters would help her get further in her modeling career. Ford would allegedly advertise the woman to the sports stars, arrange her travel, and negotiate payments that he’d get a cut of. He also allegedly threatened the woman and made her film the encounters secretly. When she began to resist filming, per the complaint, Ford “demanded money in place of the videos.”
Ford was previously convicted of a similar scheme in 2019 after getting access to more than 100 iCloud accounts that belonged to athletes and musicians and spending almost $325,000 worth of stolen money. He was convicted of aggravated identity theft and computer fraud and abuse. Per prosecutors, Ford began his current scheme while serving a prison sentence (on home release, due to Covid) for his previous one.
On March 13, Ford pleaded not guilty to all charges of his latest phishing scheme. He is currently being held without bail pending trial. Ford is due back in court on June 1 for a hearing.
