The Justice Department charged a Georgia man for allegedly breaking into the Apple accounts of professional athletes and using their card details to make purchases for himself. 

Kwamaine Jerell Ford, 34, is accused of defrauding multiple NFL and NBA players by impersonating a prominent adult film actress as part of the scheme to steal funds through Apple accounts.

He was arrested and appeared in an Atlanta court on Friday, where he pleaded not guilty to dozens of counts of wire fraud, computer fraud, aggravated identity theft, access device fraud and sex trafficking. A judge ordered that Ford be held without bail. 

In addition to the monetary theft, Ford is accused of coercing a woman to have sex with several of the players and keeping unauthorized videos of the interactions. Prosecutors also said he hacked into the security cameras that one athlete had installed at his home. 

Ford allegedly did all of this while on probation for conducting similar phishing attacks and spending nearly $325,000 through the stolen financial information of his victims. 

“While serving time for stealing credit card numbers from athletes and celebrities to fund his lifestyle, Ford allegedly engaged in the same conduct again,” said U.S. Attorney Theodore Hertzberg. “Disturbingly, the indictment alleges that Ford went even further and used a fraudulent online persona to traffic a young woman and coerce her to produce hidden camera videos of commercial sex acts with unknowing individuals.”

Ford previously pleaded guilty to hacking charges for a similar account takeover scheme in 2019 and was sentenced to three years in prison. But due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he was released in September 2020 and was allowed to serve the rest of his sentence with an ankle monitor at home. 

Prosecutors said information seen on his seized devices showed that within two days of being home, Ford began phishing professional athletes again.

He eventually obtained the login credentials for Apple accounts belonging to the athletes through a two-pronged approach. Posing as an adult film star who prosecutors identified with the initials “T.T.,” Ford offered the athletes sexually explicit videos.

Ford would then contact the same athletes posing as an Apple customer service representative, saying that in order for them to access the explicit videos they needed to send their username, password, and multifactor authentication codes.

Through the Apple accounts, Ford gained access to the athletes’ credit and debit cards. He used them on thousands of dollars worth of purchases, including direct fund transfers, DoorDash orders and more. In total, he conducted more than 2,000 transactions. 

Ford allegedly evolved the scheme by 2021, continuing to pose as the adult film actress but coercing a novice adult film actress to engage in prostitution with professional athletes. Ford, posing as “T.T.,” said he would advance the woman’s career and effectively sold her sexual services to the athletes — eventually arranging her travel and payment for sex. 

Ford forced the woman to film several of the sexual encounters without the athletes’ consent. Prosecutors also found evidence that Ford hacked into the security cameras of one victim and stole videos from inside the person’s home. Ford “obtained videos of victims engaging in sexual acts without their knowledge or consent.”

“In short, the allegations here go far beyond lying for money. The fact that Ford allegedly committed this conduct while serving a prison term for similar conduct — indeed, the new conduct is an escalation of his prior criminal conduct — drives home how dangerous he is,” prosecutors said. 

In court documents, prosecutors argued Ford could not be released on bail because he likely would continue to phish athletes as he had done when he was released for his previous charges. 

“Ford can easily continue doing the same thing if he is not detained. Probation does not have the ability to monitor his electronic devices in a way that can stop him from committing more crimes,” prosecutors said during a hearing on Friday.  

“And it would be exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to prevent Ford from possessing electronic devices that can access the internet.”