United States Attorney's Office District of Connecticut
Press Release

MANCHESTER WOMEN INVOLVED IN BANK FRAUD SCHEME ARE SENTENCED

David B. Fein, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that LAKISCHA WILLIAMS, 37, of Manchester, was sentenced yesterday, July 20, by United States District Judge Janet Bond Arterton in New Haven to one day of imprisonment followed by three years supervised release, 250 hours of community service, and full restitution, for her involvement in a bank fraud scheme.  On November 19, 2008, WILLIAMS pleaded guilty to bank larceny and conspiracy to commit bank larceny offenses.

In addition, BRENDA JONES, 46, of Manchester, was sentenced on July 14 by Judge Arterton to time served, three years supervised release, 250 hours of community service, and full restitution, for her participation in the same scheme.  JONES pleaded guilty to bank larceny and conspiracy to commit bank larceny offenses on October 23, 2008.

According to court documents and statements made in court, WILLIAMS and JONES conspired with each other and with Troy Moody to steal large business checks from the Bank of America lockbox processing center in East Hartford, where WILLIAMS and JONES worked for almost 10 years, and then provided the stolen checks to Moody.  JONES and/or WILLIAMS provided Moody with four checks totaling approximately $536,857.  Moody, by himself or through his co-defendant Tylon Mims, then provided each stolen check to four different female co-conspirators, Miosotis Garcia, Patricia May, Pamela Bozzuto, and Taissa Ramos.  Each of those co-conspirators then registered a business and opened a fraudulent bank account in the name of the payee on the stolen check, deposited the stolen check, and then withdrew funds.  A total of approximately $422,655 was withdrawn from the four fraudulent bank accounts opened by Garcia, May, Bozzuto, and Ramos.

Moody, Mims, May, Garcia, Ramos, and Bozzuto have each pleaded guilty to charges stemming from this scheme.  May and Garcia were sentenced to two years of probation and an order to pay restitution to Bank of America.  Bozzuto received a sentence of 30 days in jail, three years of supervised release, and an order to pay restitution, for her participation in the scheme as well as for her conviction for perjury related to her grand jury testimony in this case.  Mims received an aggregate sentence of 66 months’ imprisonment for his conviction on Bank Fraud charges and his violation of a prior term of supervised release.  Moody and Ramos await sentencing.

Judge Arterton ordered JONES to pay restitution in the amount of approximately $285,601 and WILLIAMS to pay restitution in the amount of approximately $315,655, based on the number of checks each participated in stealing.

This matter was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys David E. Novick and Paul H. McConnell.

CONTACT:

U.S. ATTORNEY'S OFFICE
Tom Carson
(203) 821-3722
thomas.carson@usdoj.gov