A convicted felon in Georgia has pleaded guilty to several cases of identity theft, financial fraud, theft, and sex trafficking by posing as a porn star to convince NBA and NFL players to engage in sex acts with a woman he had coerced into prostitution.
The felon, Kwamaine Jerell Ford, 34, also obtained the credit card and banking information of some of the pro athletes and helped himself to their money, federal prosecutors said, according to the New York Post.
Ford initiated his most recent elaborate scheme in November of 2020 while he was already serving time for previous crimes, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia explained in a March 16 press release.
“While serving time for stealing credit card numbers from athletes and celebrities to fund his lifestyle, Ford allegedly engaged in the same conduct again,” said U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg. “Disturbingly, the indictment alleges that Ford went even further and used a fraudulent online persona to traffic a young woman and coerce her to produce hidden camera videos of commercial sex acts with unknowing individuals.”
Federal investigators found that Ford illegally obtained the Apple ID login information of several pro athletes — who have remained unnamed in the court case — first by posing as a well-known porn star to convince the athletes to engage with him. Secondly, he posed as an Apple customer service worker to obtain more information so he could raid banking and credit card accounts. To facilitate the fraud, he convinced Apple customers to send him their usernames and login info.
Prosecutors also say he coerced a woman into making explicit videos so he could send them to the athletes to further bring them into his web of fraud. And by 2021, Ford had coerced the woman into actually meeting some of the athletes in person for sexual encounters that he also secretly recorded without the knowledge of the athletes. Ford reportedly fooled the woman into believing that he would help further her budding modeling career if she engaged in the sexual encounters.
The convict used a series of false online personas to obtain payment for sex from the athletes and took a cut of the money for himself. He also used false personas to threaten the woman he was sex trafficking to keep her in line and to force her to continue to do his bidding.
Ford appeared in court on March 13 and pleaded guilty to nine counts of wire fraud, seven counts of computer fraud, one count of access device fraud, four counts of aggravated identity theft, and one count of sex trafficking, the U.S. Attorney’s Office revealed. He was ordered held without bail pending a trial.
The FBI is the chief investigative agency in this case.
“Kwamaine Ford clearly did not learn from his prior conviction for a similar scheme. This time, he allegedly escalated his criminal activity—stealing identities and money while also moving into coercion and sex trafficking,” said FBI Georgia Acting Special Agent in Charge Peter Ellis. “The FBI’s dedicated agents remain committed to staying ahead of schemes like this and protecting the public from individuals who exploit and harm others for personal gain.”
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