Accused Fraudsters Run Highly-Organized Scheme Victimizing Utah’s Largest Credit Unions

Five men from California, Texas and Utah are facing a possible December jury trial for running a highly organized but short-lived fraud scheme through which they recruited indigent persons, bought them new clothes, paid for them to travel and stay in Utah, and gave them fake IDs to open accounts and corresponding lines of credit at two multi-billion dollar credit unions.

In just five months, the group stole more than $452,000 from the $20.7 billion America First Federal Credit Union in Riverdale and the $20.2 billion Mountain America Federal Credit Union in Sandy, according to court documents filed by the U.S. Attorney’s office in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Matthew Acquah and Jordan Battle both of California, Jamari Chapman and Emas Hama, both of Utah, and Lucky Hathaway of Texas, have pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and bank fraud charges. Acquah, Battle and Chapman have also pleaded not guilty to aggravated identity theft charges.

Court filings showed their case is tentatively scheduled for a jury trial in December unless they decide to cut a plea deal with federal prosecutors.

According to court filings, they used this information to fabricate phony IDs that included driver’s licenses, passports and passport cards, with photos of the indigent persons they recruited to open accounts and lines of credit in the names of these prospective members.

The indigent recruits were allegedly offered money if they agreed to pose as third parties using the fake IDs.

The five men also allegedly purchased new clothes for the recruits, helped them learn the personal information on the fake IDs, and paid for them to travel and stay in Utah. The five defendants also rented cars or used their personal cars to drive the recruits to America First and Mountain America locations.

On Jan. 23, several members of the alleged conspiracy were transported from Salt Lake City International Airport to a nearby hotel to start preparing and staging for a planned fraud spree.

The next day, Jan. 24, one of the recruits was driven to Mountain America branches in Provo and Orem, where he opened an account using a phony ID in the name of a member identified in court documents as A.P. and then drew approximately $35,000 from a line of credit, according to court documents. On the same day, another recruit was driven to Mountain America locations in Orem and Springville, and with a phony ID opened an account in the name of a member identified in court documents as J.H. The recruit also drew $35,000 from a line of credit in the name of J.H.

However, this scheme didn’t always work.

On Jan. 25, a recruit was driven to an America First branch and used the fake ID in the name as C.R. to open an account and a line of credit. But the credit was unsuccessful in drawing from C.R.’s line of credit.

The fraud scheme allegedly continued through May.

In total, the five men and their indigent recruits attempted to steal at least $400,000, causing $452,234 in losses from Mountain American and America First.

Two of the defendants, Acquah and Battle, are in federal custody, while three of them, Chapman, Hama and Hathaway, were released on special conditions, court filings showed.