NEWPORT NEWS Va.–Tre’quan Smith has pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court here to leading a fraud scheme that duped sailors in the U.S. Navy through online dating apps and cost 25 Navy Federal Credit Union members more than $363,000.
Smith pleaded guilty conspiracy to commit bank fraud and aggravated identity theft in exchange for prosecutors agreeing to dismiss four other counts. Smith and at least five others carried out the scheme between April 2020 and October 2021, according to prosecutors.
Court documents state that Smith and the others, pretending to be Navy Federal Credit Union employees, contacted members and informed them fraudulent purchases had been made with their accounts. They obtained account information from each person and then transferred money out of the person’s account, prosecutors said.
Dating Apps Used
Prosecutors further said the fraudsters also set up profiles on dating apps such as Tinder, where they posed as women interested in romantic relationships. They used those connections to find other sailors’ bank accounts where they could transfer the stolen funds, according to authorities.
After the money was transferred to the sailors’ accounts, prosecutors said member of the conspiracy group would then ask the sailor to withdraw the transferred money and give it to them — often under the guise of helping a relative in the Navy who was trying to send them money.
According to prosecutors, most of the targeted sailors were “junior members” of the Navy with limited financial means.
At the time of sentencing, prosecutors said they had uncovered 25 Navy Federal members who had a total of $363,225 taken from their accounts. The individual losses ranged from $1,000 in one case to $91,000 in another. Other victims may also be discovered, prosecutors said.
Co-Conspirator is Attacked
According to the Virginia Pilot, when Smith found out one of his female co-conspirators had been contacted by law enforcement in July, he destroyed more than a dozen phones used to commit the fraud, the statement said.
“He later tracked the woman’s car to a meeting she was having with investigators at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Newport News,” the Virginia Pilot reported. “He confronted the woman the next day while she was a passenger in his car, where he punched her in the head, slammed her head into the passenger’s side window and choked her.”
Sentencing for Smith is scheduled for Aug. 8. The maximum term he could receive is 32 years in federal prison.
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