Waxahachie Man Sentenced to 70 Months in Federal Prison for $1.7M SIM Card Swapping Fraud Scheme

A Waxahachie man who coordinated a SIM card-swapping fraud scheme was sentenced today to 70 months in federal prison, announced United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Ryan Raybould.

Kimionte Bennett, 30, was indicted in July 2025 and pled guilty in October 2025 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He was sentenced today to 70 months in federal prison by Chief U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor, who also ordered Bennett to pay $1,769,438 in restitution.

According to court documents, Bennett facilitated multiple "SIM swap" attacks, whereby Bennett and his co-conspirators gained control over their victims' cell phone numbers by temporarily re-assigning the victims' phone numbers to a SIM card controlled by Bennett or his co-conspirators. After conducting the "SIM swap," Bennett and his co-conspirators used that phone access to intercept the multi-factor authentication codes, and used these codes to illicitly access the victims' cryptocurrency accounts-from which Bennett's co-conspirators would steal cryptocurrency from the victims.

In total, court records reflect that Bennett and his co-conspirators were responsible for an actual loss of $1,769,438 sustained by the various victims of this SIM card-swapping fraud scheme.

At the sentencing hearing, one victim said, "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 of Bennett's co-conspirators, Leticia Contreras and Osvaldo Guajardo, were also prosecuted in related cases for participating in Bennett's fraud scheme. Contreras, 30, of Dallas, Texas, was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison. Guajardo, 31, of Houston, Texas, was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison.

FBI Omaha Field Division, FBI Dallas Field Division, Polk County Sheriff's Office, FBI Detroit Field Division, and FBI Cyber Division conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Eric B. Chen, Matthew Weybrecht, and Justin Beck prosecuted the case.