Federal Jury Convicts Woman for Running $1 Million Car Loan Scheme
Kimberlie Flemings and co-conspirators defraud 15 credit unions and three banks.
The jury found Flemings guilty of conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud, wire fraud affecting financial institutions and multiple counts of financial institution fraud.
Two of Flemings’ co-conspirators, Stanley Reginald Barron, 38 of Cornelius, N.C. and Brian Lyles, 46, formerly of Jersey City, N.J., previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud. Lyles also pleaded guilty to bank fraud. They are currently awaiting sentencings, federal prosecutors said.
According to evidence presented at trial, witness testimony and filed court documents, from at least 2012 to 2015, Flemings, Barron, Lyles and others submitted dozens of fraudulent car and personal loan applications to at least 15 credit unions and three banks. They took out the loans in their names and the names of at least 30 other individuals they had recruited to participate in the scheme.
Because of the fraudulent applications, the co-conspirators obtained more than $1 million in fraudulent loan proceeds.
Prosecutors said the co-conspirators created fake automobile dealerships that purported to be the sellers of vehicles purchased with the fraudulent loans. They also set up bank accounts, websites, and addresses associated with these fake car dealerships and created phony purchase orders, which were submitted to credit unions and banks as part of the loan application.
Flemings, Barron and Lyles deposited the fraudulently obtained checks from the financial institutions into accounts Barron controlled. After keeping a portion of the fraudulent loan proceeds, Barron distributed the rest to Flemings, Lyles, and others.
To cover up the fraud, Barron and others made false statements to the defrauded credit union and banks that attempted to collect on the debts that the borrowers had been the victims of identity theft and that they had not authorized the loans.
The majority of the loans defaulted, causing losses for the credit unions and banks.
According to court documents, the defrauded credit unions were the $91 billion Navy FCU in Vienna, Va., the $23 billion Pentagon FCU in Tysons Corner, Va., the $38 billion State Employees CU in Raleigh, N.C., the $10 billion Alliant Federal Credit Union in Chicago, Ill., the $8 billion Digital FCU in Marlborough, Mass., the $6 billion Patelco CU in Pleasanton, Calif., the 3.2 billion Affinity FCU in Basking Ridge, N.J., the $2.4 billion NASA FCU in Wash., D.C., the $2.1 billion Chartway FCU in Virginia Beach City, Va., the $1.5 billion USAlliance Financial FCU in Rye, N.Y., the $420 million McGraw-Hill FCU in East Windsor, N.J., the $416 million Air Force FCU in San Antonio, Texas, the $354 million Garden Savings FCU in Parsippany, N.J., the $346 million Credit Union of New Jersey in Ewing, and the $222 million Atlantic FCU in Kenilworth, N.J.
The defrauded banks were Wells Fargo Bank in Sioux Falls, S.D., Sun Trust Bank in Atlanta, Ga., and Santander Bank in Boston.