Baltimore Man Pleads Guilty to Bank Fraud Scheme

Friday James, a 43-year-old man from Laurel, Maryland, has pleaded guilty to conspiracies to commit bank fraud and make false claims, and to aggravated identity theft. James was involved in a scheme to defraud financial institutions by depositing counterfeit and stolen checks and withdrawing the funds before the deposits were identified as fraudulent.

According to court documents, James conspired with others to defraud various financial institutions between 2007 and November 2013. He became involved in the scheme through an individual he worked with buying and selling cars. James and this individual were originally from Nigeria and the individual had loaned James money.

James and his co-conspirator would obtain post office box addresses and open bank accounts for businesses. They would then deposit stolen, altered, and counterfeit checks into the accounts and withdraw the funds before the checks could bounce. The men used other individuals to conduct many of the transactions, including LaKeisha Butler, Kesa Baker, Carlvester Davis and others.

The scheme involved using stolen identities and fake identifications to open post office boxes and bank accounts for businesses. James and his co-conspirator would prepare the paperwork for these transactions and provide the mailbox keys, checkbooks and debit cards to the individuals who conducted the transactions. Only James or his co-conspirator picked up the mail from the post office boxes.

During James’ participation in the bank fraud conspiracy, he and his co-conspirators obtained extensions of credit from federal insured financial institutions of $1,519,429.52 and attempted to obtain extensions of credit of $3,149,616.10. More than 10 financial institutions and individuals were victimized by this scheme.

James also knew that electronic tax refunds were being deposited into the business bank accounts, and that since the business was fraudulent, no legitimate tax refunds would be due the business. He repeatedly withdrew these funds immediately after they were deposited. James and his co-conspirators obtained $389,592.05 in false claims for stolen identity tax refunds, and another $957,377.05 in false claims for tax refunds were submitted but not paid.

The total loss foreseeable to James was $1,886,969.10. James’ guilty plea was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Postal Inspector in Charge Maria L. Kelokates of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service – Washington Division; and Special Agent in Charge Thomas Jankowski of the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), Washington, D.C. Field Office.