Police Make Third Arrest in Ongoing Navy Federal Fraud Investigation Case

Georgia Police said Wednesday a third person, Curtis Davis, 40, has been arrested in the ongoing $800,000 fraud investigation of a former Navy Federal Credit Union employee, which also involves Navy Federal accounts belonging to a street gang member and a dead man.

“This portion of the investigation revealed that two checks, totaling $122,225.98, were deposited into the NFCU account belonging to Christopher Upshaw, who is currently incarcerated in federal prison,” the Columbus Police Department (CPD) said in a prepared statement. “Surveillance footage captured former NFCU employee Steven Verrett depositing both checks – once with Davis providing the check. The other check was deposited while Verrett used innocent customers as cover due to the presence of video surveillance.”

Davis has been charged with forgery and theft by deception.

In May, CPD’s investigators arrested Verrett, who worked at a Navy Federal Columbus branch as a member services representative. He was initially charged with 15 felony counts of forgery, ID fraud, theft and computer crimes. In June, CPD said Verrett was also charged with 14 additional criminal charges of theft, forgery and ID fraud.

He allegedly used member accounts as a cover to deposit counterfeit checks and opened fraudulent vehicle loans and funneled the funds to himself and several other coconspirators.

The initial five checks, which were reported stolen from the U.S. mail, amounted to more than $800,000, according to CPD.

Earlier this month, investigators arrested a second suspect, Demetrius Redding, 46, for allegedly helping Verrett with depositing four stolen checks totaling $480,142 in various accounts, according to CPD’s Property and Financial Crimes Unit.

Upshaw is a member of the Zohannon criminal street gang who was sentenced to more than 11 years in federal prison in April for injuring a federal officer when Upshaw attempted to flee his arrest during an armed drug trafficking investigation, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office in Macon. At the time that the $122,225 checks were deposited to Upshaw’s Navy Federal account, he was in federal custody, CPD said.

Police investigators also reported that funds were withdrawn from Upshaw’s Navy Federal account via cashier’s checks, ATM withdrawals, and counter cash withdrawals.

“Davis was recorded on multiple occasions receiving cash from Verrett,” CPD said. “Additionally, bank records indicate that Davis deposited cash from one of the cashier’s checks withdrawn from Upshaw’s NFCU account into his own private bank account.”

A second Navy Federal account, which is also part of the fraud investigation, belonged to Jermain Thirkied, 18, who was killed during a shooting incident in November 2023, which remains under investigation.

“With the assistance of NFCU internal investigators, our detectives identified at least eight NFCU accounts that are involved in the fraudulent activities,” CPD said. Navy Federal detected the suspicious activity and immediately reported it to CPD, which launched its investigation in February.

Verrett had been working at Navy Federal since 2017, according to his LinkedIn page.

CPD said more arrests are expected.