FL Creates Special Grand Jury To Probe ID Theft

The Florida State Supreme Court earlier this week authorized the empanelling of a special state grand jury to investigate increased cases of identity theft in the state.

The grand jury, to be seated by mid-July “will be able to investigate this crime [of identity theft] in a focused and coordinated manner,” according to according to Gov. Jeb Bush, who petitioned the state’s highest court to authorize empanelment.

The Supreme Court, in granting Bush’s request, appointed Judge Belvin Perry Jr. of the Ninth Judicial Circuit to preside over the special state grand jury, which will probe all aspects of identity theft, ranging from credit card and Internet fraud to mail and Social Security Number theft, in addition to possible organized crime involvement.

Attorney General Bob Butterworth would not predict what the grand jury’s year-long probe would determine or if it would lead to any criminal charges being filed against any individuals or groups.

Gov. Bush admitted that Florida “has the fourth highest number of identity theft related crimes in the country,” behind California, New York and Texas. Nationally, it was noted the Greater Miami Area ranked fifth in the number of reported identity theft related cases, after New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Houston, TX.

In March the Federal Trade Commission reported that its Identity Theft Hotline and Data Clearing House processed more than 65,000 complaints from consumers about identity theft, or more than double the amount handled just three years earlier.

While the FTC report did not include a state-by-state and city-by-city statistical breakdown of identity theft complaints, Tom Sadaka, special counsel for Florida Attorney General’s Computer Crimes and Identity Theft Prosecutions unit, explained that the exact number of identity theft complaints could not be determined because “our identity theft statute is two years old and we haven’t been able to hone in yet on the total number of reported case” of identity theft.

He did note, however, that some separate 30 investigations into identity theft were underway across the state before Bush asked for a special statewide grand jury.