Group Sentenced After Cashing More Than $1 Million in Counterfeit Bonds at CUs, Banks
The fraudsters use their names and SSNs on the 176 fake bonds, most of which are exchanged for cash at CUs.
Seven persons who cashed 176 counterfeit U.S. Treasury bonds at two credit unions and two banks were sentenced last month and ordered to pay restitution of more than $1 million in restitution, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Montgomery, Ala.
From January through February 2021, Zachery Hale cashed 44 phony bonds worth nearly $8,000 at different credit union branches.
The next month, federal prosecutors said Hale, Stephanie Jean Abercrombie and Joni Marie Andrews recruited four others – David Michael Penuel, Joseph Fletcher Lee Jr., Marsha Renee Skeen and Timothy Bryant Baxter – to cash an additional 126 fake bonds for $1,038,909. These bonds were cashed at credit unions from March to December 2021, court documents showed. The group also cashed six counterfeit bonds at two banks for more than $2,700.
The fraudsters used their own names and Social Security numbers on the bonds and claimed they were the rightful owners when they cashed them at the financial institutions, federal prosecutors said.
The criminals targeted branches of the $3 billion All in Credit Union in Daleville, Ala., the $2 billion Max Credit Union in Montgomery, Ala., Regions Bank and Synovus Bank, according to court documents.
Hale pleaded guilty to conspiracy and bank fraud and was sentenced to 92 months, 7.6 years in prison.
Abercrombie pleaded guilty to conspiracy and bank fraud and was sentenced to 42 months, 3.5 years.
Pleading guilty to conspiracy and bank fraud, Lee was sentenced to 36 months, three years.
Pleading guilty to bank fraud, Penuel was sentenced to 18 months, 1.5 years.
Andrews, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy, was sentenced to one year and one day.
Baxter, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy and bank fraud, was sentenced to one day in prison, time served.
Skeen, who pleaded guilty to manufacturing counterfeit obligations of the U.S. and bank fraud, was sentenced to one year.
The fraudsters were ordered to pay restitution to the credit unions, banks and the U.S. Treasury.