Man indicted on charges of stealing professors' identities

GREENSBORO, N.C. - A federal grand jury has indicted a former Clemmons man accused of stealing the identities of university professors in North Carolina, Georgia and Illinois. <br> <br> Gary Charles Smith faces 15 counts of credit-card and mail fraud to obtain money and property. The grand jury returned the indictment against Smith, 50, in U.S. District Court in Greensboro Monday. <br> <br> Smith was arrested Aug. 28 in Fayetteville after a five-month investigation by federal and local authorities. He is being held in federal custody at the Forsyth County Jail with bond was set at $1 million. <br> <br> The indictment alleges that Smith devised a scheme in which he used the identities of three other men: Gary Randall Smith, a law professor at Emory University in Atlanta; Gary Charles Smith, a professor at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee who has the same name as the defendant; and Gary Smith, a literature professor at DePaul University in Evanston, Ill. <br> <br> Smith was accused in the indictment of using their names, their Social Security numbers, and other personal information to obtain credit cards, a consumer loan and a lease at an apartment in Clemmons. The crimes occurred from May 2001 to Aug. 28, 2002, according to the indictment. <br> <br> Authorities said that Smith used the personal information of other people to open credit-card accounts and buy at least $35,000 worth of items, including bulk food and beer. The indictment accuses Smith of receiving bills from the credit-card and consumer-loan companies at addresses in Clemmons and Winston-Salem. <br> <br> Officials began investigating the case when Gary Randall Smith, a law professor at Emory University in Atlanta, called the Forsyth County Sheriff&#39;s Office in late March and told them that he had been a victim of identify theft. <br> <br> The Emory professor told investigators that several credit-card accounts had been opened using his name, and that the bills were being sent to an apartment in Clemmons. <br> <br> Managers at Hawk Ridge Apartments told investigators that a man named Gary Smith lived there. The managers checked their files and found that the Social Security number on the apartment lease matched that of the professor at Emory. <br> <br> The Emory professor&#39;s address was listed on the apartment application as the renter&#39;s previous address. Investigators then began following the trail of credit-card fraud involving the name Gary Smith. <br> <br> Investigators said that Smith obtained a North Carolina driver&#39;s license using the name of Michael Craig Turpin, a former Oklahoma attorney general. The indictment did not include the apparent theft of Turpin&#39;s identity. <br> <br> At the time of his arrest in Fayetteville, he had, using false identities, taken jobs teaching English and literature at Campbell University in Buies Creek and as a transcriber of court and government hearings, investigators said.