Ten people from cleveland area charged for $207,000 fraud
A federal grand jury returned an indictment charging 10 individuals from the Cleveland area, including a former Dollar Bank assistant branch manager, with bank fraud and aggravated identity theft in connection with a scheme to defraud PNC Bank, Charter One Bank, Dollar Bank, Key Bank, Fifth Third Bank and First Merit Bank, which resulted in losses of approximately $207,000 to those financial institutions, said Steven M. Dettelbach, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.
Charged in the indictment are: David L. Tartt, age 35, of Bedford Heights; Lionel D. Rutherford, age 39, of Shaker Heights; Terrance R. Walker, age 38, of Richmond Heights; Yvonne M. Turner, age 49, of Cleveland Heights; Kelly M. Walker, age 24, of Cleveland; Michael L. Pollard, age 43, of Cleveland; Robert J. Middlebrooks, age 33, of Twinsburg; Christopher Rico, age 25, of Cleveland; Darnell Evans, age 36, of Cleveland; and Nicoy Williams, age 34, of Garfield Heights.
The indictment charges that between November 2011 and February 2012, the defendants knowingly executed and attempted to execute a scheme to defraud the listed federally-insured financial institutions, and to obtain funds from the banks by means of false and fraudulent pretenses, representations and promises, causing the banks to suffer losses in excess of $207,000.
The indictment charges that Nicoy Williams, then an assistant manager of a Dollar Bank branch located in Maple Heights, Ohio, accessed Dollar Bank’s computer system to obtain information concerning customer accounts, which unauthorized computer inquiries were followed by a series of unauthorized withdrawals of funds from those accounts.
The indictment further charges that Terrance Walker, then employed as a sales representative for Total Merchant Services, a provider of “point of sale” terminals to businesses in the Cleveland area, fraudulently provided confidential banking and other financial information concerning his business clients to David Tartt in exchange for cash payments.
The indictment further charges that David Tartt and Lionel Rutherford used the information to produce various counterfeit checks which purported to be drawn on one or more of the bank accounts accessed by Nicoy Williams or fraudulently sold by Terrance Williams, which checks were negotiated and attempted to be negotiated at branches of PNC Bank, Key Bank, Charter One Bank, Dollar Bank and First Merit Bank, by Yvonne Turner, Michael Pollard, Christopher Rico, Kelly Walker, Robert Middlebrooks, Darnell Evans, and others, thereby fraudulently withdrawing or obtaining funds from said accounts.
If convicted, each defendant’s sentence will be determined by the Court after review of factors unique to this case, including the defendant’s prior criminal record, if any, the defendant’s
role in the offense and the characteristics of the violation. In all cases, the sentence will not exceed the statutory maximum and in most cases, it will be less than the maximum.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert W. Kern of the Cleveland U.S. Attorney’s Office, following an investigation by the Cleveland Office of the United States Secret Service.
An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government's burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
