JESUP, GA — An inmate accused of stealing $11 million while incarcerated has escaped from a federal prison where he was serving a sentence for bank fraud, the FBI Atlanta office said Monday.
The agency is offering a reward of up to $10,000 in exchange for the arrest and conviction of Arthur Cofield, who they say escaped from the Federal Correctional Institute in Jesup on May 26.
The 34-year-old man was serving an 11-year sentence for a 2024 conviction of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and aggravated identity theft, authorities said.
The day after the escape, authorities said Cofield was federally charged with escape from custody.
Cofield is from Atlanta and has ties to the metro area, authorities said. They added he should be considered armed and dangerous.
His aliases are "Lil' Co," "Yap," "Don Moet" and "Archie Dee," authorities said.
At 5-feet-4-inches tall, Cofield weighs 210 pounds, according to authorities said.
He has a dove tattooed on the left side of his face and a tomahawk on the right side of his face, authorities said.
Previously convicted of armed robbery, Cofield was serving a 14-year sentence at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson when he was indicted for conspiracy to commit bank fraud and money laundering, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office Northern District of Georgia in December 2020.
Georgia prison records on Tuesday showed he was also convicted of attempted murder and gang participation in Fulton County in connection with a September 2018 incident. He was sentenced to 30 years and had a possible maximum release date of Feb. 7, 2037.
Cofield's latest conviction stems from a 2020 incident during which federal prosecutors said he was able to illegally acquire $11 million while in the Jackson prison.
That June, they said he used a contraband cell phone to retrieve "multiple means of identification for victim S.K." and was able to gain access to the person's online bank account.
On June 5, 2020, prosecutors said Cofield impersonated S.K. and called a bank representative to ask about opening a checking account.
He was told he would need a utility bill and a form of identification, documents a co-conspirator texted to him, prosecutors said.
Three days later, Cofield emailed a purchase inquiry to an Idaho metals dealer to buy gold coins. Still acting as S.K., prosecutors said he agreed to purchase 6,106 American Gold Eagle 1-ounce coins for $10,998,859.92.
That same day, a woman called a customer service representative at the bank to ask about verification for a wire transfer. Prosecutors said she claimed to be calling on behalf of her husband.
Then, while pretending to be S.K., Cofield called the bank to have $11 million from S.K.'s account sent to the metals dealer. Prosecutors said based on false representations, the bank obliged and sent the funds to an account belonging to the metals dealer.
On June 13, 2020, prosecutors said Cofield hired private security to bring the gold coins from Idaho to Atlanta via a chartered private plane. Three days later, the security landed at the Atlanta Signature Airport, where they met with a man who was Cofield's co-defendant at the time.
The co-defendant displayed false identification to security and retrieved the gold coins, prosecutors said.
In July 2020, Cofield contacted the owner of a six-bedroom West Paces Ferry home in Atlanta and submitted an offer for $4.4 million. Prosecutors said the owner received a cash down payment of about $720,000 from the woman claiming to be Cofield's wife, along with his co-defendant.
During closing that September, the co-defendant gave the owner the remaining $3.7 million in cash to the homeowner.
“Some prisoners aren’t interested in rehabilitation or paying their debt to society,” then-U.S. Attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak said in a past news release. “The allure of millions of dollars in gold, coupled with contraband prison cellphones, allegedly was enough for Cofield to commit a brazen million-dollar fraud scheme from the confines of his prison cell.”
The FBI asked anyone with information on his whereabouts to call its free tip line, 1 (800) 225-5324, or the U.S. Marshals Service, 1 (877) 926-8332.
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