PEORIA, Ill. – A Cameroon man has been sentenced to serve 48 months in federal prison for defrauding a Bourbonnais bank of nearly $300,000.
Lovette Namatinga, 34, of Owings Mills, Md., pleaded guilty to all counts of the indictment, four counts each of bank and wire fraud, as charged, related to his defrauding Municipal Trust and Savings Bank, Bourbonnais, Ill.
Namatinga admitted that he carried out the fraud from about February to April 2019, by falsely representing to the bank that the secretary of one of the bank’s customers requested that cashier’s checks be sent to his fraudulent company, known as Keiko San Products Alimenticious, LLC.
The bank issued four checks totaling nearly $300,000, which were mailed to Namatinga’s home address. Once the checks were deposited into Keiko bank accounts, Namatinga then transferred money from those accounts to his personal account or withdrew cash from those accounts.
In addition to the fraud committed through Municipal Trust & Savings Bank, Namatinga used his fraudulent business and multiple associated bank accounts to deposit and launder fraud proceeds from various other victims throughout the United States.
Namatinga’s scheme, known as a business email compromise scam, was just one such scheme in 2019 that resulted in more than 23,000 victims nationally, with an average loss of $75,000 per complaint, according to FBI crime statistics.
Namatinga has been in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service since he was arrested on October 7, 2019, at Washington Dulles International Airport by FDIC Office of Inspector General agents.
Namatinga was sentenced on April 13, 2021, and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $278,201 to the bank and numerous other individual and business victims of the defendant’s fraud scheme.
Related Federal Cases
- Brian J Ourand, Wire Fraud, Illinois 2024 · Illinois
- Merrill Sentenced to Wire Fraud Conspiracy and Wire Fraud, MA, 2023 · Illinois
- Lahai Charles, Cisco Equipment Wire Fraud, Oak Park IL, 2023 · Illinois
- Carlos Djemal, International Money Laundering and Wire Fraud, Chica… · New York
- Christopher Dillon, Wire Fraud Conspiracy, New York 2022 · New York
Key Facts
- State: Illinois
- Category: White Collar Crime|Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
ðŸâ€Â’ Get the grimiest stories delivered weekly. Subscribe free →
MORE FEDERAL CRIME NEWS
US NewsUS NewsUS NewsUS News