FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT

AUSA VICKIE E. LEDUC at 410-209-4885  

January 11, 2006   

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                  

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/md                                        

BALTIMORE CITY RESIDENT INDICTED FOR OBTAINING
MORE THAN $850,000 IN WIRE TRANSFER AND CREDIT CARD FRAUD SCHEMES

Baltimore, Maryland - United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein announces that a federal grand jury has indicted Bryn D. Phillips, age 30, of Baltimore, Maryland, for engaging in bank, mail, and wire fraud schemes that allowed her to illegally obtain more than $850,000 in money, products, and services by defrauding her employer, Old Mutual Financial Network (“OMFN”) and federally insured banks.

The ten count indictment returned on December 22, 2005, and unsealed today upon Phillip’s arrest, charges that from approximately October 2, 2002 until December 30, 2004, Phillips caused Wachovia Bank and Municipal Employees Credit Union (MECU) to transfer $708,049.42 in monies, funds, and credits from OMFN corporate accounts into accounts she controlled. The indictment alleges that Phillips falsely represented to Wachovia Bank that OMFN gave her authority to cause the issuance of wires transferring monies from OMFN accounts at Wachovia Bank to Wachovia Bank and MECU accounts controlled by Phillips. She caused checks to be drawn against OMFN’s account at Wachovia Bank that were payable to entities controlled by Phillips, and/or her relatives and associates, and withdrew and wired monies from OMFN accounts which OMFN had intended to be used as payment for OMFN business expenses, to Wachovia accounts under Phillips’s control.

Phillips also allegedly used names and passwords of employees under her supervision to execute wire transfers from OMFN corporate accounts into accounts she controlled.