Lake Worth local Manley Vanel Neptune finds himself in a deepening quagmire of legal troubles as he's smacked with bank fraud conspiracy charges while still tethered to his earlier case of identity theft. The 33-year-old, on bond for the aforementioned identity snafu, is accused of spearheading a scheme to siphon over $2.1 million from the U.S. Treasury by exploiting a filched check and a bogus bank account, the Justice Department disclosed on Wednesday.
Neptune, playing a risky game of financial deception, reportedly took a counterfeit swing at opening an account at First Horizon Bank on Feb. 2, only to be nabbed by law enforcement. Sporting a fake U.S. passport card, the name "W.H." was his mask of choice, according to details in the initial complaint, according to U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of Florida. Just days later, an indictment followed for using that sham passport and the aggravated identify theft shenanigans on Feb. 15. Despite these red flags, Neptune was released on bond.
The plot thickened when the investigation uncovered that on Feb. 1, just one day before his First Horizon Bank attempt, Neptune had managed to successfully set up a fake account at Truist Bank in Pompano Beach, flexing the same fake U.S. passport card. While out on bond on Feb. 20, Neptune directed two women to deposit a hefty stolen U.S. Treasury check, ringing in at a cool $2,172,687.18, into this fraudulent account. This grand maneuver earned Neptune a second complaint, now charging him with participating in a bank fraud conspiracy.
Neptune faced the music at his initial court appearance on March 7 in connection with this fresh set of allegations. Both parties agreed to pretrial detention, leaving a window open for future debate, revealed a statement by the Justice Department. The accused is set to step into the courtroom once more for an arraignment hearing on March 21. If the gavel falls on his guilt for bank fraud conspiracy, Neptune could see up to 30 years behind federal bars, a reality starkly contrasted with the freedom he momentarily tasted on bond.
The severity of Neptune's potential sentence underscores the aggressive stance on fraud. Markenzy Lapointe, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, alongside HSI's Miami Special Agent in Charge Anthony Salisbury, is heading the prosecution, while Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph A. Cooley is tasked with unraveling the legal intricacies before the court. Neptune, swirling the drain of a legal system bent on exacting justice, looms on the precipice of a life altered irrevocably by his alleged detours into criminality.
