Jim Murray opened a merchant account named Jones, Moore & Associates with Chase Paymentech in 2010 and processed approximately $650,000 in debit and credit transactions, utilizing cards connected to himself, relatives and associates.
He was arrested on March 13, 2012 charged with Wire Fraud and Aggravated Identity Theft and subsequently released on bond with certain restrictions that he not have access to a cell phone or to the Internet.
As the case slowly moved toward trial Murray was allowed to use a computer at his attorney’s office on the condition that the computer afforded him no Internet access. A search of that office by the FBI on Feb. 26, 2014, however, revealed that Murray had hidden an ASUS Nexus tablet computer in the ceiling of the small conference room he was allowed to use at Pillsbury, Winthrop, Shaw, Pittman, according to court records.
FBI Special Agent Brian Weber requested the search warrant after receiving a tip from another resident of the halfway house. The resident, a convicted bank robber, said he purchased the computer tablet for Murray at his request. In his affidavit requesting the warrant, Weber detailed the information supplied by the “cooperating witness,” whom he did not name.
According to the witness, Murray told him he couldn’t buy the tablet himself because he spent all his time at the law firm and had escorts between the halfway house and the law firm. Murray told the witness that at the law firm he was allowed to work alone in a conference room with the door closed and that no one ever entered the room without knocking first. Murray said he hid the tablet in the ceiling tile when he left the firm each night, in case he was searched at the halfway house.
Recently Murray has been returned to custody for violating the terms of his release. Its doubtful that the cell will have a ceiling suitable for a phone or iPad. If so, underwriters will want to avoid merchant applications from the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, CA