‘God Squad’ Recruits High Schoolers to Steal From CUs, Bank

Federal prosecutors alleged three men ran a social media group called the “God Squad” and used Snapchat and Instagram to display money and luxury cars, luring high school students to steal thousands of dollars from six credit unions and a bank throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington.

An indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Portland, Ore., on Dec. 21 charges Darrin Hopkins, 22, Tyrann Chambers, 21 and Jaidan O’Neal with 14 felony counts of bank fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. They pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The high school students were not charged because they were duped into believing the transactions were legitimate.

The accused men allegedly targeted students at Grant High School in Portland to deposit more than $140,000 in counterfeit checks at branches of the $1.4 billion Advantis Credit Union in Clackamas, Ore., the $856 million Rivermark Community Credit Union in Beaverton, Ore., the $24 billion Pentagon Federal Credit Union in McLean, Va., the $1.6 billion SELCO Community Credit Union in Eugene, Ore., the $1 billion IQ Credit Union in Vancouver, Wash., the $5.4 billion OnPoint Community Credit Union in Portland, Ore., and U.S. Bank.

Hopkins, Chambers and O’Neal used Snapchat and Instagram to recruit high school students and referred to them as “mules.” The trio enticed high schoolers with images of money and fancy cars, and promised them big bucks in exchange for depositing phony checks.

According to the indictment, the accused men had the high schoolers open accounts at the credit unions or bank, and in other instances, they recruited students who had accounts at the financial institutions.

Federal prosecutors said Hopkins, Chambers and O’Neal misled the high schoolers into thinking the transactions were on the level. For example, they told high schoolers they worked for a company that held inactive investments and accounts, and in order to liquidate the assets or avoid a tax liability, the fake checks needed to be deposited into the students’ accounts.

Throughout 2017 and last year, Hopkins, Chambers and O’Neal drove students to the financial institutions to deposit the rubber checks and provided them with instructions on how to make the deposits, how much cash to withdraw, and how to answer credit union and bank employees who asked questions.

The amounts on the checks ranged from $600 to $3,500. Federal prosecutors did not say how many high school students were recruited.

Hopkins, Chambers and O’Neal used the students’ IDs, ATM cards and PIN numbers so the counterfeit checks could be made payable to the students and deposited into their accounts. The men then withdrew cash from the ATMs or made point-of-sale purchases with cash withdrawals at commercial businesses throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington.