Tag: Law

An Atlanta woman could face up to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty Friday to using a NBA player’s stolen identity to try to obtain a $2.5 million loan, authorities said. Annie M. Ford, 51, pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in connection with the 2013 loan application, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey said in a news release.

From October to November that year, Ford tried to obtain the loan from a New York-based lending company using the stolen identity of a NBA player who lived in New Jersey, the release said. She admitted to creating fraudulent documents under the man’s name. In addition, she forged the victim’s signature on multiple documents, including an escrow document that said the $2.5 million loan would be deposited in her bank account, the release said.

Gazella Bensreiti, who lives in Aurora, was asked to remove the head cover before attending the Nov. 5 NBA game featuring the Denver Nuggets and the Miami Heat, said Gadeir Abbas, a senior litigation attorney for the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Her daughter’s elementary school choir had been invited to sing the National Anthem

A Pepsi Center employee at will call reportedly told Bensreiti to “take that thing off” or be denied entry into the arena, CAIR said in a news release. Bensreiti suggested she be taken to a private area so a woman could inspect underneath the religious head cover. “She was refused and subsequently subjected to public humiliation in front of staff, students and other parents, until her daughter became distraught, believing her mom would not be allowed to see her perform,” the news release said.

Becca Villanueva, a spokeswoman for Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, said she would not discuss the specifics of the incident. Kroenke owns the Pepsi Center and the Nuggets. On game days, the company contracts with Argus, a private company, to run security checkpoints at the admission gates, Villanueva said. But she would not say whether the will call ticket window had Argus security or Pepsi Center employees working there before tipoff.