Tampa, Florida U.S. District Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell today sentenced Fontella James (37, Plant City) to two years and eight months in federal prison for conspiracy and aggravated identity theft. She pleaded guilty on April 11, 2017.
According to court documents, James worked at Rotech Healthcare, Inc.s Lakeland billing center. As an employee of Rotech, she had password-protected access to the companys secure computerized databases that contained medical records and personally identifiable information (PII) of Rotechs customers and patients, including names, dates of birth, and social security numbers. James agreed with fellow Rotech employee, co-defendant Sharmekia M. Young, to steal Rotech patient records containing PII to give to co-conspirator Vickie Bryant. James and Young provided the PII of hundreds of Rotech customers to Bryant so that she could sell the information to another individual (a confidential informant) who manufactured, sold, and used counterfeit credit cards and counterfeit Florida driver licenses. On June 9, 2016, and again the following week, Bryant met with the informant and sold him 957 different victims PII contained in printed medical records that had been stolen by James and Young.
On Dec. 13, 2016, Bryant was sentenced to four years imprisonment for access device fraud and aggravated identity theft. Young has pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing.
This case was investigated by United States Secret Service, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and the Tampa Police Department, as part of the Secret Services Financial Investigations Strike Team. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Rachel Jones, Amanda Riedel, and Adam
--DOJ Middle District of Florida
Source: U.S. Secret Service