September 14, 2010 Portland team of thieves operate million dollar business www.privateofficer.com
Antione Lamont Lawrence, 37, was convicted of leading the crime ring which broke into hundreds of commercial office buildings, stealing checks, credit cards and personal information and then using the stolen personal information to create false IDs. The thieves then cashed the stolen checks and shopped with the stolen credit cards, according to a memo from prosecutors.
Earlier this year, Lawrence pleaded guilty and admitted taking part in a conspiracy that netted between $400,000 and $1 million from more than 50 victims. On Monday a judge sentenced him to 97 months in prison and ordered him to pay $688,623.72 in restitution.
The investigation – which was started by a deputy in the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office and grew to include agents from the Internal Revenue Service and the United States Secret Service – resulted in more than a dozen arrests and the seizure of firearms, stolen prescription drugs, marijuana, valuable jewelry, luxury cars and high-end electronics and computer equipment.
Thieves hit office buildings in Portland area
The thieves targeted office buildings along Kruse Way in Lake Oswego as well as several in downtown Portland, including the Medical Dental Building on SW 11th Avenue, the Mayer Building at 1130 SW Morrison and the building at 610 SW Broadway. They also snuck into buildings in Tigard, Beaverton and Tualatin.
“They targeted buildings with several floors, and specifically targeted offices of doctors, dentists, lawyers, accountants, and insurance companies because those offices were more likely to have corporate credit cards, petty cash and prescription drugs such as Oxycontin,” prosecutors explained.
Outside of Portland, the group operated in more than 40 cities around the country including the Washington cities of Bellevue, Seattle, Tacoma, Auburn, Camas and Mercer Island.
According to prosecutors, “every member if the team had a role” and it was Lawrence’s role “to break into office buildings to ‘get business’ or ‘work,’ which meant stealing business checks and credit cards.”
Thieves plotted crimes at Portland strip clubs
The group would plan their jobs in Portland, often at strip clubs such as Club 205, according to prosecutors.
Lawrence and a co-conspirator would travel to cities where they “would watch office buildings during the week, identify the presence and activities of any security guards, identify the location of the maintenance office, and monitor any specific patterns of the tenants, such as what time they would come and go from the building.”
Once they found a job, “they summoned the others,” prosecutors said.
The team would often strike in Friday nights and they would try to find the maintenance office where they could get a master key for the building. If they were successful, according to court documents, they would take the key to a place like Home Depot and make a copy so they could come and go, almost at will.
Once inside, they would move methodically from office suite to office suite, opening desk drawers and rummaging through files, prosecutors said.
“Sometimes they posted a lookout outside the building, and they would communicate with the lookout and with each other by two-way radios, or with pre-paid cellular telephones, also known as ‘drop phones,” prosecutors said.
The team if thieves was apparently so good at moving in and out of office buildings without being discovered that several cleaning crews were blamed and fired.
Lawrence and his team would often travel to Las Vegas or local casinos such as Chinook Winds and Spirit Mountain where they could withdraw up to $5,000 in cash per transaction on stolen credit cards and cards they had obtained using stolen IDs.
Thieves used stolen credit cards for luxury items
They would also use the stolen credit cards to purchase gift cards at places like Nordstrom, use the cards to purchase merchandise, and then return the merchandise for cash.
Prosecutors said that team members particularly enjoyed purchasing Rolex watches and designer suits. Sometimes they would use one stolen identity to pay down the stolen credit cards of someone else that they had maxed out by purchasing items.
In addition to credit cards, the team would steal business checks that they would then cash for amounts often up to $50,000.
According to prosecutors, given his role as leader of the team, Lawrence would get 80% of the proceeds of a job with the rest being split by the other members of the team. By the time the group was caught and arrested, more than a dozen people had been indicted and convicted of either state or federal charges.
Lawyer says Lawrence not the ring leader
While Lawrence’s lawyer, Laurie Shertz, declined to make herself or her client available for an interview, in court papers she described him as someone raised by a single mother who made some bad choices and has been working to get his life back together.
“Mr. Lawrence did engage in the conduct” he’s accused of, she wrote, but “he disagrees with the notion that he was a leader or organizer… Many people were committing similar crimes at the same time, and sometimes they assisted one another, most often they did not.”
Shertz wrote that Lawrence has struggled with alcohol and hoped to get into counseling while in prison.
“This is a man with a problem, clearly, and one that can be addressed through programming and counseling, both while he is incarcerated and when he is eventually released after his incarceration,” she wrote.
Shertz said that Lawrence was able to get two jobs while awaiting sentencing, but neither had worked out.
“Both of the jobs he was able to secure were working in a call center,” she explained. “Both call centers closed their doors, barring the employees, and leaving neither forwarding addresses nor wages for the hours worked.”
Shertz said her client regrets what he’s done but is hopeful.
“Ninety seven months is a significant sentence.” she wrote. “Even with good time, Mr. Lawrence will be in his early forties when he is released. He hopes he will be able to sustain his relationship with his long-term partner and love of his life and begin anew upon his release.”
“One of Mr. Lawrence’s great regrets is that he will miss his own son’s growth from adolescence to manhood: his past repeated before his eyes,” she added.
Lawyer: Lawrence already trying to reform
“People change. It is Mr. Lawrence’s great desire to do so and he appears to have started down the road of reformation. He has attended alcohol classes intermittently while on release and has made diligent efforts to search for a job. With support classes and job training, he will be able to re-enter society as a contributing member and someone his son can be proud of.”
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