A group of Fresno residents and a Los Angeles woman have been indicted on charges in connection with a sophisticated bank fraud scheme, involving the recruitment of participants via Facebook. The charges, laid out by Acting U.S. Attorney Michele Beckwith, detail a year-long operation attempting to siphon close to $1 million from various credit unions.
According to a statement released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the six individuals - Abreiana Rogers, 29, of Los Angeles, Nyric Hinton, 26; Zion Brewer, 39; Zorian Temple, 23; Davonntae Barfield, 30; and Harry Cooper Neal, 29, all from Fresno - used social media to ensnare unwitting bank account holders with the lure of easy money. These account holders were then exploited as vessels for fraudulent transfers, a number of which were orchestrated using checks stolen by Brewer, a postal employee.
In what appears to be a methodical pilfering of financial institutions, the accused not only shared techniques to exploit weaknesses in bank fraud prevention systems but also coached their pawns to mislead bank inquiries by claiming their accounts were compromised. Such guidance ostensibly aimed to cloak the larger con unfolding, a ruse reportedly stretching across over 100 bank accounts and resulting in the theft of several hundred thousand dollars.
The investigation, a collaboration between the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the FBI, the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General, and the Fresno Police Department, culminates in an extensive list of charges. Rogers faces four counts of bank fraud on top of conspiracy and one particularly serious charge of aggravated identity theft. Her co-defendants, similarly, face multiple counts of bank fraud, but, whether they are convicted hangs in the balance pending a status conference scheduled for June 4.
If found guilty, the penalty for each of the alleged conspirators is steep: up to 30 years in prison and a quarter-million dollar fine for the bank fraud and conspiracy charges. Rogers' additional charge of aggravated identity theft could add a mandatory two-year consecutive prison term. Yet it is imperative to remember, these charges are only allegations. The defendants, as of now, retain the presumption of innocence until proven otherwise in a court of law.
