A man from Waxahachie, Texas, has been sentenced to 70 months in federal prison for his role in a SIM card-swapping fraud scheme that resulted in the theft of more than $1.7 million. The sentencing was announced by United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Ryan Raybould.
Kimionte Bennett, age 30, was indicted in July 2025 and pleaded guilty in October 2025 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Chief U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor handed down the sentence and ordered Bennett to pay $1,769,438 in restitution.
Court documents state that Bennett organized several “SIM swap” attacks with his co-conspirators. These attacks involved transferring victims’ cell phone numbers onto SIM cards controlled by Bennett or others involved in the scheme. With control over these numbers, they intercepted multi-factor authentication codes sent via text message and used them to access victims’ cryptocurrency accounts, stealing funds from those accounts.
Records show that the group’s actions led to an actual loss of $1,769,438 for multiple victims.
During the sentencing hearing, one victim described the impact: “These weren’t just digital numbers on a screen; they represented my family’s savings, our future security, our dreams. I had planned to use that money to build a stable future for my [child]—[their] education, our home, our peace of mind. In an instant, it was all gone. Coming from a family whose parents came to this country with cheap plastic suitcases, and zero money, it was absolutely devastating . . . In an instant, that same American dream that my parents worked so hard to build, and continued through me, vanished.”
Two other individuals connected with Bennett’s scheme were also prosecuted. Leticia Contreras of Dallas received a 57-month prison sentence while Osvaldo Guajardo of Houston was sentenced to 30 months.
The investigation involved several agencies including FBI field divisions in Omaha and Dallas as well as Polk County Sheriff’s Office and FBI Cyber Division. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Eric B. Chen, Matthew Weybrecht, and Justin Beck handled prosecution.
