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U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Mississippi
GULFPORT – A Houston, Texas, man was sentenced today to three years of federal probation and ordered to pay $51,294 in restitution for the federal felony offense of Knowingly Possessing Identification of Another Person in Connection with Wire Fraud. According to court documents, Jay Brisco, age 26, was sentenced in Gulfport. Bisco pleaded guilty to the felony offense on October 22, 2024.
In March 2020, an investigation by Walmart Global Investigations was initiated when a victim reported that someone fraudulently opened a cell phone account in his name, without his consent. The initial findings found that the account was opened at a Walmart store in Gulfport. In March 2020, Walmart sold cellular phone contracts for a variety of phone carriers including AT&T and Verizon. Walmart used the services of a third-party company, named “The Revenue Optimization Company” (referred to as TROC), to assist with phone and phone contract sales. TROC staffed Walmart stores with TROC employees who assisted with phone purchases and applications for phone contracts, and who were compensated, in part, by commissions.
Brisco was a TROC employee at Walmart Store Number #969 in Gulfport, and he received identification information of customers which he used to complete and process cellular phone contract applications. Brisco would complete an application on behalf of a legitimate customer and then was complicit with a fraudulent application using a different name, but with the real customer’s identity information being used in the second contract. Brisco submitted the second phone application, knowing it was fraudulent. Walmart Global Investigations reviewed surveillance video and phone contract records which revealed that Brisco knowingly processed fraudulent phone applications containing the personal identity information of victims.
Walmart security personnel notified law enforcement and the case was investigated by the Gulfport Police Department and the U.S. Secret Service which has jurisdiction over credit card other financial fraud. Brisco confessed to his part in a criminal conspiracy involving others who also were prosecuted in other jurisdictions in Texas and the Southeastern United States.
Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi, Patrick A. Lemon, praised the investigative work of the United States Secret Service, the Gulfport Police Department and Walmart Global Investigations. Lemon and Kyle Smith, Special Agent-in-Charge for the United States Secret Service in Jackson, made the announcement. Assistant U.S. Attorney Stan Harris prosecuted the case.
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