Press Releases
MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO BANK FRAUD
November 26, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PEDRO QUINTANA, age 57, a resident of Honduras, pled guilty to one count of bank fraud, announced U. S. Attorney Jim Letten.
QUINTANA pled guilty before U. S. District Judge Helen G. Berrigan to one count of bank fraud. The single count carries a maximum statutory penalty of thirty years imprisonment.
QUINTANA was charged with willfully and knowingly executing and attempting to execute a scheme and artifice to defraud Bank One of approximately $40,426.00 by depositing false and fraudulent checks into a relative’s existing account in order to create a false balance.
It was part of the scheme and artifice to defraud that the defendant requested the relative to open a new individual checking account in her name at Bank One in New Orleans, Louisiana in February 1998.
It was further part of the scheme and artifice to defraud that the defendant forged two credit card “convenience” checks on the new relative’s credit card accounts and deposited said checks into his relative’s new Bank One checking account.
It was further part of the scheme and artifice to defraud that the defendant delivered a forged check drawn on the relative’s new Bank One checking account to a local car dealership to purchase a car. Shortly after Bank One guaranteed payment of the forged check to the car dealership, the bank learned the two deposited false and fraudulent out of state credit card “convenience” checks were returned unpaid to Bank One creating a loss to the bank in the amount of approximately $40,00.00.
QUINTANA was indicted by a federal grand jury on January 17, 2003. However, QUINTANA was at large from the time he was indicted until Federal Bureau of Investigation agents received a call from the Department of State, U.S. Embassy in Honduras advising agents that QUINTANA was found in Honduras and was in immigration custody.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and is being prosecuted by Assistant U. S. Attorney Andre’ Jones.
)
