Six people charged in bank fraud scheme involving an insider sharing account information that caused more than $345,000 in theft

From the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of Washington

Seattle – Six people were indicted for conspiracy to commit bank fraud, six counts of bank fraud, and six counts of aggravated identify theft for their scheme to steal more than $345,000 from a western Washington credit union, announced U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman. One of the defendants, 31-year-old Aneicia Ford, allegedly used her brief employment with the credit union to steal account information of credit union customers so that conspirators could take over the accounts and steal the funds.  The credit union has fully reimbursed customers who lost money to the co-schemers.

According to records filed in the case, between May and October 2022, Aneicia Ford worked out of her Tacoma home as a contact center employee who helped customers with account issues.  In that role, she had access to personally identifying information about customers of the credit union.  According to the indictment, Ford passed that information on to 21-year-old Dangelo Roberts, who allegedly used it to access and steal from customer accounts.  Roberts allegedly advertised on social media that he could make false identification materials and sought to recruit co-schemers to access victims’ accounts.

In addition to Ford and Roberts, the other conspirators charged in the scheme include:

Shanna Carter-Zanders, 42 of Auburn, Washington

Kohrey Lee Bridges, 22, of Tumwater, Washington

Anthony McQueen, 36, of Seattle

Meghan Frazier, 21, of University Place, Washington

Aniecia Ford is charged in every count in the indictment. All of the defendants are charged with the conspiracy and different defendants are charged with individual counts of bank fraud and/or aggravated identity theft.

All of the defendants have appeared on the indictment or are scheduled to appear next week.

Using the stolen account information, the conspirators obtained false IDs and used them to get debit cards and to make withdrawals from the victims’ accounts, often at the credit union’s branches.  After obtaining increases to the ATM withdrawal limits, the conspirators obtained as much as $25,000 in cash.  The conspirators would also spend victims’ funds by ordering cashier’s checks or purchasing postal money orders that they made payable to other conspirators or their associates.  They used their illegal access to transfer money between accounts and check balances on accounts.

In all the scheme stole approximately $345,014 from the credit union accounts.

Conspiracy to commit bank fraud and bank fraud are both punishable by up to 30 years in prison. Aggravated identity theft is punishable by a mandatory minimum two years in prison to follow any other sentence imposed on other charges in the case.

The charges contained in the indictment are only allegations.  A person is presumed innocent unless and until he or she is proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

The case was investigated by the Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General (SSA-OIG) and the FBI.

The case is being prosecuted by Special Assistant United States Attorney Jessica M. Ly.