Florida Couple Allegedly Swindled $800,000 From Credit Unions & Banks
Bennie Ware and Lacretia Pratt have been charged with conspiracy and multiple bank fraud charges.
A Florida man and woman are facing conspiracy and multiple bank fraud charges for allegedly swindling nearly $800,000 from credit unions and banks.
Federal prosecutors allege Bennie Ware III, 54, and Lacretia Roquel Pratt, 50, submitted fraudulent auto loan applications and deposited counterfeit checks at financial institutions. An indictment charged Ware and Pratt with one felony count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and eight felony counts of bank fraud.
During their arraignments in U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale, Ware and Pratt did not enter a plea and each were released after posting a $25,000 bond. A jury trial has been scheduled for March, according to federal court filings.
From November 2017 to August 2018, Ware and Pratt allegedly opened a checking account at Bank of America in the name of Ride Now Auto Sales Inc. in Jacksonville, Fla., using the personal identifying information of victim 1. According to prosecutors, they also used the personal identifying information of five other victims for phony auto loan applications to purchase from Ride Now Auto Sales in Jacksonville, Fla., and Ben Auto Sales Inc. of Davie, Fla.
After the fake vehicle applications were processed and approved, credit unions issued cashier’s checks. Ware and Pratt allegedly deposited these funds into bank accounts. They also allegedly created counterfeit checks in the names of three other corporate victims, not identified in the indictment, and deposited the funds into bank accounts.
According to court documents, the victim credit unions were the $2.1 billion Florida Credit Union in Gainesville, the $6 million F.R.S.A. Credit Union in Orlando, the $878 million Power Financial Credit Union in Pembroke Pines, Fla., the $1.4 billion U.S. Senate Federal Credit Union in Wash., D.C., and the McGraw-Hill Federal Credit Union in East Windsor, N.J., which was merged into the $34.8 billion PenFed Credit Union in McLean, Va., during the first quarter of 2019.
The victim banks included Bank of America, Citi Bank, JP Morgan Chase Bank, Northern Trust Bank, Regions Bank, SunTrust Bank and TD Bank.