Fraud Ringleader Admits to Stealing $370k From 25 Sailors' Navy Federal Accounts

Trequan Smith will be sentenced in August for leading a fraud ring that stole more than $370,000 from 25 sailors’ accounts at the $153 billion Navy Federal Credit Union in Vienna, Va.

He pleaded guilty to one felony count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and one felony count of aggravated identity theft in U.S. District Court in Newport News, Va., last week, according to plea deal documents.

The bank fraud scheme began in April 2020 and continued until Smith’s arrest in October 2021. He admitted to recruiting five other people identified only by their initials in court documents to help him steal the funds.

The victims of the fraud scheme are almost all junior members of the U.S. Navy with limited financial means and suffered substantial hardship, prosecutors said in court documents.

“The defendant (Smith) understands and acknowledges that the United States is still actively identifying new victims and losses,” prosecutors wrote. “The number of victims and losses at sentencing may be higher.”

Navy Federal did not respond to CU Times‘ requests for comment on Thursday.

One of the five people recruited by Smith was Emani Burton of Hampton, Va., who pleaded guilty in November 2021 to one felony count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud.

Smith, Burton and four other co-conspirators phished access to Navy Federal accounts and posed as Navy Federal employees alerting members to a phony fraudulent purchase in order to get their information to their accounts without their consent.

Prosecutors said the criminal ring then targeted sailors on dating apps like Tinder by posing as females interested in a romantic relationship.

Burton and the co-conspirator used the member accounts they previously accessed via phishing to transfer those funds to the targeted sailors’ accounts. The sailors did not know the transfers were illegitimate.

Smith and the co-conspirators asked the sailors to withdraw the transferred funds often under the guise of helping a relative in the Navy who was trying to send them money. To obtain the funds, the criminals met the sailors via the internet and in person at various locations throughout eastern Virginia, prosecutors said.

One sailor had $91,000 stolen, while one other sailor lost $30,000 in the scheme. Fourteen sailors lost funds ranging from $10,000 to 24,000, and nine sailors lost funds ranging from $1,000 to $5,900, court documents showed.

The total amount stolen was $373,291.

In at least three instances, Burton met the sailors at different locations, including at a Navy Federal branch in Hampton, to get the money from the sailors, court documents showed.

In one instance, however, Burton and the co-conspirators attempted to defraud a victim out of $16,550. Burton met the sailor at a gas station in Hampton to obtain $1,000 in cash and three money orders made payable to her.

But when she deposited the funds in her Navy Federal account, they were flagged as fraudulent. After she was confronted by Navy Federal employees, Burton falsely claimed she had been a victim of a scam, prosecutors said.

Burton’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for March 24.