Georgia fraudster, 66, gets 10 years jail for helping PRISON INMATE defraud billionaire Sidney Kimmel out of $11M from behind bars: Used his cut for $3.7M mansion
A Georgia man was sentenced Monday to four years in prison for helping an inmate defraud a billionaire California film producer of $11 million in one of the biggest crimes behind bars in U.S. history.
Eldridge Bennett, 66, of Lawrenceville, admitted in April to helping veteran criminal Arthur Cofield, 32, with his elaborate fraud.
Bennett, whose mugshot has not yet been released, also must pay $11 million in restitution for his crimes. Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
He will serve his full sentence without the possibility of parole.
Cofield, born in a rough neighborhood of Atlanta, has been behind bars since 2007.
He was initially given a 14-year prison sentence for robbing a bank when he was 16. In the summer of 2018, he was accused of arranging for a hit man to shoot and kill a man who was flirting with a girlfriend, and he pleaded not guilty: the case is ongoing and he remains in prison.
Bennett's daughter, Eliayah Bennett, 28, was married to Cofield online in July 2019: she said The New Yorker she was “a pretty girl in a strip club,” adding, “People know me. I danced for big people and stuff like that.'
Arthur Colfield has been behind bars since 2007. On Monday, one of his accomplices, Eldridge Bennett, 66, was sentenced to four years for his role in the fraud.
Sidney Kimmel is seen at the premiere of The Place Beyond the Pines, which he produced, in March 2013. Kimmel was defrauded by Cofield, although the bank immediately refunded the lost $11 million.
Kimmel can be seen in 2012 with Amanda Seyfried at the premiere of Gone, which he also produced
She was recruited by one of Cofield's girlfriends to “have a girl-on-girl encounter for him on FaceTime,” a detective on the case told the magazine.
Cofield supported Eliayah and her parents financially, and in the summer of 2020 they purchased a $4.5 million mansion in Buckhead, an affluent part of North Atlanta where old and new money families live.
Cofield financed the lifestyle through a scheme carried out via mobile phones smuggled into his cell.
He would open bank accounts using stolen identities, then call the bank and transfer money from the real account to the fake account, with details such as Social Security number, date of birth, address and mother's maiden name.
One of his victims was Sidney Kimmel, a 95-year-old businessman who made his $1.5 billion fortune from clothing before becoming a film producer, with films such as Moneyball, The Lincoln Lawyer and Crazy Rich Asians.
The $4.5 million mansion in Buckhead, Georgia, that Cofield bought
The Buckhead property had a champagne tower, which was stocked with Moet & Chandon when Eliayah Bennett lived there, The New Yorker reported
Cofield created an online brokerage account in Kimmel's name and then called his bank, Charles Schwab, claiming to be Kimmel, to link the new account to a checking account.
Cofield then transferred $11 million to the new account and used the money to purchase gold coins from an Idaho supplier.
The gold was flown to Atlanta and the Bennetts picked it up from the airport.
Schwab later paid Kimmel back.
Cofield's plot unraveled when guards found his cellphones, and he was indicted in December 2020 on charges of aggravated identity theft, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
He took a 151-month plea deal in April of this year for the Kimmel fraud, and another in Alabama.
He will be sentenced on January 5.
Eliayah Bennett has pleaded guilty to concealment of wire fraud and will be sentenced on January 19.
Her father apologized Monday for his “poor judgment” and said he never realized he was committing the crime of money laundering.
“To put it all in a nutshell, I was not aware of the money laundering allegation,” he said.
'I thought I was just a courier. I just made a choice. At my age I should have known better.'
He added: 'One of the stupidest things I've ever done.'