OMAHA, Neb.—A federal grand jury has indicted an Oklahoma man for an alleged fraud involving a prepaid debit card scam that hit a half-dozen credit unions and a bank in Nebraska and Kansas.
Sherman L. Clemons, 35, of Oklahoma City got away with $25,000 in the three-month spree and tried, but failed, to take $22,000 more before he was arrested and charged in state court in Seward County, according to the indictment filed late last week, the Beatrice Daily Sun reported.
Now, Clemons faces seven federal charges, too, including conspiracy to commit fraud, bank fraud and four counts of credit union fraud.
In the indictment, Assistant U.S. Attorney Russell Mayer said between Sept. 1 and Dec. 11, Clemons used false names, entered various financial institutions and presented insufficiently funded Green Dot Visa prepaid debit cards and counterfeit driver's licenses or ID cards to credit union and bank employees.
When cash advances were denied, he said, Clemons told the tellers to call the telephone number on the back of the card to confirm there were funds.
Mayer said the number didn't go to Green Dot at all, but rather to an unknown conspirator who falsely said there was money on the account, prompting the tellers to give Clemons cash, the Beatrice Daily Sun reported.
The indictment alleges he used the names Logan and Leroy Thompson, Damon Smith and Byron Long and started in Wichita, Kansas, in September and was in Nebraska for three days in November, hitting Bellevue on Nov. 16, and Lincoln on Nov. 17-18.
On Dec. 11, Seward tried again. That day at about noon, Seward County Officer Paul Vyhlidal said he was called to Liberty First Credit Union about a fraud and talked to a man at the counter claiming to be Byron Long, according to state court records, Beatrice Daily Sun explained.
Vyhlidal learned from dispatch that the man's Arizona driver's license was fraudulent and so was the credit card with which he was trying to get a $4,000 cash advance.
Vyhlidal said he was able to identify the man as Clemons and learned he had warrants in New Jersey, New Mexico and Kansas.
While investigating, Vyhlidal said, he was contacted by a Lincoln police sergeant after the Seward credit union forwarded a photo of Clemons to credit unions in Lincoln that had suffered the same type of fraud, the Beatrice Daily Sun explained.
Mayer outlined the victims and loss in the indictment. He said:
- In Lincoln, Liberty First Credit Union lost $10,000; University of Nebraska-Federal Credit Union lost $2,000 and Pinnacle Bank lost $5,000
- In Bellevue, Centris Federal Credit Union lost $4,000
- In Wichita, Kansas, Wheat State Credit Union lost $4,000.
Mayer said Clemons tried to obtain $22,000 from Liberty First Credit Union in Seward, and at Meritrust Credit Union and EquiShare Credit Union, both in Wichita. But he wasn't successful.
If convicted of all the counts in the indictments, Clemmons could get up to five years imprisonment and $250,000 fine on the conspiracy count and up to 30 years and a $1 million fine on each of the other six counts, the Beatrice Daily Sun noted.