A Kent man, the final member of a large bank fraud ring responsible for nearly $1 million in fraud, received a 25-month prison sentence last week in U.S. District Court in Seattle.
Shawn Andre Turner, 26, also received five years of supervised release from U.S. District Court Judge Richard A. Jones on Oct. 7, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office media release.
Turner is the last of five defendants sentenced to prison terms of more than two years. In all, 10 defendants were indicted for a fraud scheme involving seven financial institutions. Between November 2010 and February 2015, the co-schemers used 219 bank accounts to steal more than $987,000 from the banks.
Turner was responsible for fraud on 15 bank accounts, causing a loss of about $80,000. He pleaded guilty to three counts of bank fraud and aggravated identity theft on April 28.
According to records in the case, the defendants used stolen and forged checks to make fraudulent deposits into various bank accounts. Using debit cards, the co-schemers would withdraw large amounts of cash before the bank determined the checks used to inflate the balance were no good.
Many of the people whose bank accounts were inflated were complicit in the fraud, allowing the co-schemers to use their debit cards. According to law enforcement records, many of the checks were stolen in car prowls and then used for the fraud. Others were fictitious, using otherwise legitimate account information on fabricated checks.
The victim banks included Bank of America, Boeing Employees Credit Union (BECU), TwinStar Credit Union, Wells Fargo Bank, Sound Credit Union, Key Bank and Banner Bank. All are federally insured financial institutions.
The other defendants previously sentenced include:
• Clayton Leon Bias, Jr., 27, Kent, two years in prison
• Relonna Dollinn Ward, 36, Tacoma, 25 months in prison
• Calvin Dewayne Davis, 28, Federal Way, 42 months in prison
• Arthur Napoleand Wilcher, 31, Tacoma, 42 months in prison
Four other defendants, Okila Ayanna Malayka Ulmer, 33, of Renton, Avery Edward Lee, 34, of Milton, Sephora Quilyn Watkins, 29, of Tacoma and Johnathan Marquiel Turner, 24, of Federal Way, were responsible for smaller amounts of fraud and were sentenced to brief periods of incarceration and multi-year terms of court supervision. One defendant successfully completed federal drug court.
The U.S. Secret Service and the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office investigated the case.
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