Bigwig identity thief gets 8-year term

By Larry Neumeister
Associated Press

NEW YORK — A man who stole the identities of some of the nation's top executives to buy $730,000 in diamonds and Rolex watches was sentenced to eight years in prison yesterday.

Among those harmed were the chairman of Lehman Brothers Holdings, Richard Fuld, Coca-Cola Enterprises chief operating officer John Alm, and Hilton Hotels chief executive Stephen Bollenbach .

Other victims included the estates of deceased executives, such as Gordon Teter, the former chairman and CEO of Wendy's International, and Dr. James Klinenberg, a former administrator of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Teter and Klinenberg had died shortly before Jackson fraudulently obtained their financial information.

James Jackson, 41, of Memphis, Tenn., was ordered to pay $376,704 in restitution for crimes the judge called "everyone's worst nightmare when it comes to fears of privacy, identity theft and credit-card liability."

Prosecutors said Jackson identified prominent business executives, sometimes by reading "Who's Who in America." He called banks and credit-card companies, impersonated victims and persuaded the companies to change billing addresses on the accounts to hotels in Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi. He used the financial details to buy jewelry from New York and other cities.

FBI agents arrested Jackson in February 2000 as he tried to collect a package addressed to one of his victims at a hotel near Memphis.

Jackson's lawyer, Robert Dunn, said he suspected his client might have been driven by his ego to get caught because "what's the fun of it if nobody knows?"