Bank fraud ringleader in Mobile admits to causing up to $550,000 in financial losses
MOBILE, Ala. December 9th, 2022 Two more people on Tuesday pleaded guilty to bank fraud conspiracy, including the ringleader of the effort that caused financial losses of as much as $550,000 to banks and credit unions.
The pleas follow guilty pleas by two other members of the conspiracy on Monday.
Arrington Jaylun Gardner, 21, of Semmes, is one of 12 people indicted by a federal grand jury. As part of hi plea, he took responsibility for financial losses of between $250,000 and $550,000 incurred by banks and credit unions during a period from at least December last year until May.
Also pleading guilty Tuesday was D’Undra Norwood.
Gardner’s written plea agreement includes several images taken from surveillance cameras showing him making transactions at post offices and bank automated teller machines. It also includes pictures of fake driver’s licenses and stolen checks that he used as part of the scheme.
Federal agents raided Gardner’s apartment in July and seized dozens of counterfeit and stolen checks, several stolen and forged driver’s licenses – some of which had his face on them – and black check stock paper and printers. He also had a money-counting machine and $2,609.50 in cash.
Gardner admitted that he and others operated in Alabama, as well as Georgia, Mississippi and Louisiana. They would deposit counterfeit and forged checks at ATMs and then make unlawful withdrawals.
Gardner and his co-conspirators used social media to recruit people with bank accounts to provide their account information and debit and credit cards, according to the plea document. Gardner admitted that he made withdrawals from ATMs and transfers using CashApp.
The plea agreement lists one example from Dec. 26. He and an unindicted co-conspirator exchanged Facebook messages about obtaining the Wells Fargo account information and debit card of co-defendant Travis Morrissette, who is scheduled to plead guilty later this week.
The next day, Gardner deposited a counterfeit check payable to Morrissette for $6,605 at the bank’s Daphne branch.
Gardner turned up dozens of times on bank surveillance video making similar transactions, according to court records.
In February, according to the plea document, Gardner deposited counterfeit checks into the bank account of a co-defendant and then immediately made 18 individual “cash back” transactions at a Mobile Walmart.
One co-conspirator asked Gardner in December last year where he was getting the checks.
“I make em,” he responded, according to the plea agreement.
