George Price, 42, a former Miami-Dade Police Department officer, was sentenced to 48 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release for his participation in a wire fraud scheme, arising out of the operation of a series of credit repair businesses.  Price previously pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1349. He was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Jose E. Martinez

According to court documents, Price and his co-conspirators participated in a scheme to provide false police reports to individuals operating credit repair businesses. A co-conspirator would provide Price with identifying information of credit business customers. Price would then create false police reports, using the customers’ identifying information. The police reports would falsely represent that the customers had reported to the Miami-Dade Police Department facts consistent with having been victims of identity theft.  Price would cause the false police reports to become official records of the Miami-Dade Police Department. A member of the conspiracy would cause the false police reports created by Price to be transmitted to credit reporting agencies in order to induce the removal of negative items from the credit histories of the alleged victims identified in the false police reports. Price created the false police reports in order to promote the success of the credit businesses and in return would receive payment from his co-conspirators.

Wifredo A. Ferrer, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, George L. Piro, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Miami Field Office, and J.D. Patterson, Director, Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD), made the announcement. Mr. Ferrer commended the investigative efforts of the FBI Miami Area Corruption Task Force and MDPD Professional Compliance Bureau. This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Davis.