BALTIMORE – The brother and boyfriend of a women who headed a bank fraud and identity theft scheme that hit as many as two dozen mid-Atlantic credit unions last week was sentenced to two prison terms for the scheme.
Donald Brown, 31, whose sister, Latesha Brown was the ringleader, was sentenced to five months in prison and five months on home detention, and Christopher Houston, 34, Latesha Brown’s boyfriend, was sentenced to 33 months and ordered to pay $126,000 restitution.
The sister, Latesha Brown, 33, obtained access to credit union systems while working for at least three credit unions – Aberdeen Proving Ground FCU, Transit Employees FCU and Municipal Employees CU – and having membership in almost 20 credit unions, all by using phony identification, work records and Social Security numbers, stolen notary stamp seals and credit union paraphernalia, such as proprietary ink stamps. The information was used by Brown and Houston to obtain loans from the credit unions.
Latesha Brown established a cell phone line exclusively for “Marybeth Wright,” a fictitious former supervisor, which she, Houston and other conspirators used to receive phone calls from credit union personnel and other prospective employers seeking to confirm their prior employment history, according to prosecutors. All of the individuals involved in the scheme, including Houston and Donald Brown, listed this number on their loan applications.
Latesha Brown was sentenced to six years in prison, followed by seven years of supervised release, for bank fraud conspiracy and aggravated identity theft. She was ordered to pay $124,000 in restitution.
The scheme is believed to have siphoned more than $500,000 in fraudulent loans, mostly auto or signature loans, from the three credit unions where Brown worked, as well as HARCO FCU, Navy FCU, State Employees CU of Maryland, Citadel FCU, Freedom FCU, Freedom CU, Johns Hopkins FCU, Pennsylvania State Employees CU, Philadelphia FCU, Susquehanna Valley FCU, and DEXSTA FCU, among others.
