Federal agents arrested the alleged ringleader of a months-long identity fraud scheme on Los Angeles' Skid Row, where prosecutors say homeless individuals were paid to sign ballot petitions under the names of real registered voters.
James Brass, 47, known on the street as "Lord," was taken into federal custody early Thursday in Victorville, California, a desert city about 85 miles northeast of Los Angeles, after a federal indictment charged him with conspiracy to commit identity fraud in furtherance of a state felony. Two alleged accomplices, Courtney Price, 49, of Jacksonville, Florida, and Jateisha Herron, 33, of Boron, California, face the same conspiracy charge. Brass and Price each face an additional count of identity fraud in furtherance of a state felony. Every count carries up to five years in federal prison upon conviction.
The alleged scheme ran for at least six months in 2026, from February through August, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Prosecutors say the trio pulled voter identities from a database, handed those identities to homeless people in Skid Row, one of the largest concentrations of homeless individuals in the country, and paid them to sign ballot initiative petitions as if they were the registered voters whose names appeared on the forms.
Brass did not simply recruit others. Federal prosecutors say he managed a team of signature collectors and gathered fraudulent signatures himself. One unnamed petition management company allegedly paid him $41,600 for the work. The purpose: qualifying ballot initiatives for California elections.
After the homeless individuals signed the petitions using stolen identities, Brass and Herron allegedly signed sworn declarations at the bottom of each petition sheet. Those declarations stated, under penalty of law, that they had personally witnessed the named registered voters sign the petitions and that each signature was, to the best of their knowledge, "the genuine signature of the person whose name it purports to be." The bogus petition sheets were then turned in to petition coordinators.
Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, framed the case as a direct assault on public trust. The New York Post reported Essayli's full statement:
"These defendants used stolen identities of registered voters to manufacture signatures on ballot petitions used to shape California law. They preyed on the vulnerable homeless population and used them to try to cover their tracks."
Essayli added that his office "will vigorously investigate and charge anyone involved in corrupting our elections." Brass was expected to appear in federal court Thursday.
The case fits a pattern of stepped-up federal enforcement. The DOJ recently arrested a Honduran national on voter fraud charges in what officials described as the opening salvo of a broader California crackdown.
FBI Director Kash Patel spoke directly to Fox News Digital about the case, tying it to the bureau's broader election integrity mission:
"For at least 6 months in 2026, these subjects were allegedly paying homeless people on Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles to sign petitions in support of ballot initiatives, all using stolen identities of registered voters."
Patel added: "Securing American elections from criminal interference is of the upmost importance to this FBI. Election security will always be a top priority of this FBI."
His warning carried a blunter edge in comments captured by the New York Post: "If you mess with our elections, this FBI will find you."
That posture marks a sharp departure from prior years. Declassified FBI files previously revealed that the DOJ had blocked a full investigation of voter registration fraud in Michigan, a case that raised questions about whether federal law enforcement was willing to pursue election integrity cases at all.
Just The News reported that the federal charges followed an undercover investigation by journalist James O'Keefe in March, which caught individuals paying homeless people on Skid Row to forge signatures on ballot petitions. That reporting helped surface the conduct that the FBI and federal prosecutors ultimately pursued through a formal indictment.
The mechanics of the fraud were straightforward. Brass and his co-defendants allegedly accessed a database containing the identities of registered California voters. They distributed those identities to homeless individuals who had no connection to the voters whose names they were signing. The homeless participants received small payments, the specific per-signature amount has not been disclosed, while Brass collected tens of thousands of dollars from at least one petition management company. The company's identity has not been made public.
Several questions remain unanswered. Prosecutors have not disclosed how many fraudulent signatures were submitted, how many homeless individuals were recruited, or whether any ballot initiatives actually qualified for the ballot as a result of the forged petitions. The status of Price and Herron, whether they have been arrested or remain at large, is also unclear from the available charging information.
Federal authorities have also not identified which specific ballot initiatives the petitions were meant to support. In California's initiative system, paid signature-gatherers are a routine part of the process for qualifying measures. The alleged scheme exploited that system by substituting stolen identities for genuine voter participation.
The case is one of several recent federal actions targeting election-related fraud. A Chinese national was charged with voter fraud after allegedly casting a ballot in the 2024 presidential election, and federal authorities have also pursued cases involving other foreign nationals accused of illegal voting.
Skid Row sits in the heart of downtown Los Angeles and houses one of the largest concentrations of homeless people in the United States. The neighborhood's population, many struggling with addiction, mental illness, or extreme poverty, made for easy recruits in a scheme that required warm bodies willing to put pen to paper for pocket change.
Essayli's statement singled out the exploitation angle. The defendants did not just steal voter identities. They "preyed on the vulnerable homeless population and used them to try to cover their tracks," he said. The homeless signers were, in effect, disposable intermediaries, paid small amounts to commit acts that could carry serious legal consequences, while the organizers collected far larger sums from the petition industry.
Federal authorities have stepped up arrests tied to election integrity across multiple states, signaling that the current DOJ views these cases as a law-enforcement priority rather than a political talking point.
Brass now sits in federal custody. His co-defendants face the same conspiracy charge. And federal prosecutors in Los Angeles have made clear they intend to keep looking.
When the people running the scheme pocket $41,600 and the people doing the forging get pocket change, the only ones left holding nothing are the voters whose names were stolen, and the public whose trust in the system took another hit.
