A convicted financial institution robber — who additionally as soon as stole the id of one of many world’s richest males so as to pocket his $1.4-million tax refund — now awaits sentencing for a distinct form of fraud scheme, one which focused Southern California surfers.
Moundir Kamil, 56, was the mastermind behind a virtually $1-million scheme that focused surfers whereas they had been catching waves, in response to federal prosecutors.
Orange County resident Kamil, together with accomplices Jordan Adams and Jennifer Pruneda, pleaded responsible in September to conspiracy to commit financial institution fraud, tried financial institution fraud and aggravated id theft. Sentencing for Kamil is anticipated to happen Wednesday in downtown Los Angeles.
In response to courtroom paperwork and media experiences, Kamil and his co-conspirators burglarized automobiles to steal bank cards, debit playing cards, telephones and different types of identification to later make fraudulent purchases, together with luxurious gadgets and costly electronics, totaling at the least $850,000.
The larceny occurred throughout varied Southern California seashores together with Pacific Palisades, Malibu and Manhattan Seaside, in addition to seashores in San Diego County and different common browsing spots, from April 2021 by means of December 2022.
In a single case reported by a Newport Seaside surfer, he found that somebody had taken his keys from his beachside house and used them to steal his pockets and telephone from his automotive whereas he surfed. The thief was later recognized and alleged to be a part of an organized crime ring led by Kamil.
The scheme additionally concerned lookouts who would watch the place surfers would stash their keys earlier than they hit the waves; then a accomplice in crime would seize the important thing and break into the automotive, taking telephones and wallets. Kamil was capable of hack facial recognition software program on telephones to get into the victims’ apps, prosecutors stated. The thieves would then empty out financial institution and different accounts.
When bank card firms would name to test on fraudulent exercise, the thieves would reply the telephone and approve the costs, paperwork present.
Kamil is not any stranger to cash schemes.
In 2011, he pleaded responsible to at least one rely of financial institution fraud for stealing a virtually $1.4-million tax refund test from billionaire Donald Bren, an actual property mogul and Irvine Co. chairman.
A federal choose ordered Kamil to pay $1.1 million in restitution. He was additionally sentenced to 99 days in jail and three years’ probation, which included looking for psychological well being therapies for a playing dependancy.
Again in 2003, he was convicted of robbing six banks throughout Orange County, for which he was sentenced to 30 months in federal jail and dubbed the “Give Me Extra Bandit,” on account of his calls for for additional money from tellers.
Metropolis Information Service contributed to this report.
