HARTFORD, Conn. – The leader of an east coast fraud ring that stole purses from parked cars then used stolen identification to impersonate credit union and bank account holders to steal an estimated $2.5 million was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison this morning.
Authorities say Jermaine Jones headed the ring that victimized more than 150 people to tap into credit union and bank accounts from Connecticut to Florida. The victims were members of Community Educators CU, Space Coast CU, Astoria FCU, Power 1 CU, Central Florida Educators CU, Navy FCU, Coastal FCU, AA CU, Duke University CU, Local Government Employees FCU, U.S. Postal Service FCU, Pentagon FCU, Weyco CU, City County CU and Tropical CU, and customers of more than a dozen banks.
"This defendant and his co-conspirators executed a nearly three-year bank fraud and identity theft scheme that left a vast trail of victims in its wake,” said David Fein, U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut.
As part of the scheme, Jones and his co-conspirator Michael Johnson, of Miami Gardens, Fla., stole identification documents, checks, debit cards, and credit cards, usually by burglarizing the victims’ cars. The defendants targeted cars in parking lots at gymnasiums, parks, athletic fields, and other places where they believed women would leave purses unattended.
The two and others recruited women, typically with substance abuse problems, to cash forged checks at the credit unions and banks.
A third conspirator, Sheikera Williams, of Aventura, Fla., filled out and provided the stolen checks, along with stolen identification and bank cards, to the “cashers.” Williams also provided cashers with wigs, hats and sunglasses to disguise their appearances and to prevent tellers in the drive-thru from recognizing that the casher was not the legitimate account holder.
The operation was dubbed “felony lane,” because the farthest drive-thru lane is typically the most difficult lane for surveillance cameras to capture the cashers’ activity.
The cashers negotiated checks at the victim credit unions and banks where the theft victims had accounts. Typically, Williams would provide a casher with one or more checks that she had made out to an individual on a stolen identification card. The check would be drawn on an account of a different victim and drawn from a bank other than the one the casher approached. If a transaction was approved, the casher would give the money to the defendants and receive a share of the funds.
Investigators have identified at least 158 individuals who were victimized during the course of this scheme. Most had their purses or wallets stolen from their parked cars and their identities used to access their bank accounts.
On November 17, 2011, a jury found Jones and Johnson guilty of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, bank fraud and aggravated identity theft. During the three-week trial, prosecutors called 69 witnesses, including 23 identity theft victims, seven bank investigators and 20 state and law enforcement officers from across the nation.
On October 3, 2011, Sheikera Williams pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.
Johnson and Williams await sentencing.
