Pair headed to prison for scamming Mississippi credit union using fake auto loan paperwork
Published 8:34 am Friday, November 1, 2019
Two Mississippi residents are headed to federal prison after being sentenced on charges they conspired to defraud a Mississippi-based credit unit by falsifying auto loan documents.
Jumaane Bakari Brisby, 46, of Madison, and Otis Lee Clark, Jr., 42, of Jackson, were sentenced Thursday by Senior U.S. District Judge Tom S. Lee for their roles in a conspiracy to commit bank and mail fraud, announced U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst and Jere T. Miles, Special Agent in Charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in New Orleans.
Brisby was sentenced to 41 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $234,467 in restitution. He pleaded guilty before Judge Lee on June 6, 2019.
Clark was sentenced to 36 months’ probation with a special condition of home confinement for a period of 3 months. Clark was also ordered to pay $25,000.00 in restitution. He pleaded guilty before Judge Lee on March 28, 2019.
Brisby and Clark conspired with each other to apply for fraudulent automobile loans at Magnolia Federal Credit Union in Hinds County, Mississippi. The conspiracy spanned from early March 2017 through October 2018.
The fraudulent loan applications contained false information to include computer-generated numbers in lieu of their legitimate social security numbers and places of employment.
Magnolia Federal Credit Union relied on the information provided in the automobile loan applications and processed loans in each of the defendants’ names.
The false representations caused Magnolia Federal Credit Union to mail checks in amounts from $25,000 to $55,000 to what was later determined to be a fictitious automobile dealership. The defendants never intended to purchase or take possession of the vehicles that were referenced in the fraudulent loans.
The case was investigated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations and the United States Secret Service. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Erin Chalk.
