ATHENS, Ga. -- A former University of Georgia student led a secret life working in a UGA doctoral program while masterminding a credit card-skimming scheme that defrauded hundreds of people across the country, authorities say.
Carlton Adam Leroi Lewis III, 25, recruited servers at restaurants throughout the Southeast to steal customers' credit and debit account numbers, then used the information to make fake cards for expensive shopping sprees, according to an indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Knoxville, Tenn.
Read legal documents from the case: ► Motion ► Indictment
"(Lewis) has lived a double life - dedicated honor student by day, identity thief and sophisticated fraudster by night and weekend," a federal prosecutor wrote in court records. "Put simply, the evidence shows that (Lewis) has unfortunately chosen to use his intelligence to become an accomplished and sophisticated criminal."
Lewis converted ill-gotten merchandise to cash by selling it over the Internet, according to documents.
The investigation found that he had deposited about $145,000 into his bank account between March 2010 and April 2011, when he was earning just $1,300 a month as a UGA graduate assistant.
Lewis was involved in a "sophisticated and widespread scheme to defraud innocent individuals across the United States by stealing their credit/debit account information and using that information to purchase expensive merchandise," Assistant U.S. Attorney Zachary Bolitho wrote in an April 25 memorandum that asked a U.S. magistrate judge to detain Lewis until trial.
The scheme began to unravel March 26, when a trooper with the Tennessee Highway Patrol arrested Lewis in Knoxville on a DUI charge, court records show.
The trooper searched Lewis' SUV and found "a plethora" of evidence, including 39 fake credit and debit cards, most bearing the name Ellington Anderson, and a Texas driver's license with Lewis' photo but Anderson's name.
They also found a skimmer - a device that records information from credit cards - and another device that can reprogram pre-paid money cards with stolen account numbers, according to court documents; the SUV also contained a pile of brand-new merchandise, from iPads and digital cameras to athletic shoes, and a binder full of stolen account numbers.
Bolitho alleges in one court filing there was a "to-do" list in Lewis' SUV, with addresses of various Walmart stores and one entry, "washing cards," that seems to be a reminder to wipe information off financial transaction cards.
The trooper realized he stumbled onto a fraud scheme and asked the U.S. Secret Service to assist in the investigation, according to records.
Though others were involved in the alleged scheme, the indictment names only two conspirators - a friend that helped Lewis distribute skimming devices and buy merchandise with fake cards, and a waitress from Baton Rouge, La., who stole account numbers from customers where she worked.
Lewis has dual U.S.-Canadian citizenship and has family in Trinidad and Tobago. His mother is a professor at Spelman, the prestigious women's college in Atlanta.
"Unlike most individuals, (Lewis) does not need a passport or money in his pocket to flee because he can use his skills to create some false identification documents and transform a few plastic cards into the credit/debit card accounts of other people," Bolitho said in his argument to have Lewis detained.
Lewis also shouldn't be allowed back into society because of the risk he'll continue to steal, according to the prosecutor.
"(Lewis) is not an embezzler or a Ponzi schemer who needs to obtain the trust of others to perpetuate his fraud," Bolitho said. "All he needs is some easily obtainable electronic equipment and a few plastic cards to steal from the accounts of others."
The judge agreed to detain Lewis, who has been held without bail at the Blount County Corrections Facility in Tennessee since April 20.
When arrested in March, Lewis was in a UGA psychology doctorate program, but he was not enrolled for the summer semester or pre-registered for the fall semester, according to the UGA registrar's office.
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