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Tennessee Woman Pleads Guilty to Wire Fraud Scheme in Louisiana
A 53-year-old Tennessee woman has pleaded guilty to wire fraud in a scheme that defrauded two credit unions and three small businesses in Louisiana and North Carolina.
Trisha Milstead, of Newport, Tennessee, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Brian A. Jackson to wire fraud, according to a statement from Acting United States Attorney Ellison C. Travis.
According to admissions made as part of her guilty plea, Milstead engaged in a scheme to defraud two credit unions and three small businesses between May 2024 and July 2024.
The scheme involved Milstead opening new accounts online at a financial institution based in California and attempting to fund the accounts by initiating wire transfers from an account that she purportedly held at another financial institution based in Mississippi. However, Milstead did not have any account at the Mississippi institution and knew the transfers were fraudulent.
Before the financial institutions realized that Milstead’s transfers should be reversed, she accessed the first institution’s online ‘bill payment’ system and issued several large checks drawn on her accounts.
Milstead used one of the fraudulent checks in the amount of $38,000 to obtain a Ford F-150 Raptor truck from a dealership in North Carolina, another fraudulent check in the amount of $49,044.42 to obtain a 2020 Cadillac XT5 luxury sport utility vehicle from a dealership in Gonzales, Louisiana, and another fraudulent check in the amount of $35,350 to attempt to purchase a recreational vehicle from a business in Tennessee.
The investigation was conducted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security – Homeland Security Investigations and the Gonzales Police Department, with assistance from the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Department and the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Department. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Alan A. Stevens, who also serves as Senior Litigation Counsel.
Key Facts
- State: Louisiana
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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