Maryland Man Sentenced to Prison for Bank Fraud

            WASHINGTON – Deallto McQuil Key Davis, 25, of Maryland, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to 27 months of imprisonment for conspiring to defraud a bank out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Michael R. Sherwin and James A. Dawson, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office.  In 2015, Davis was sentenced to six months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for conspiracy to commit money laundering.

            From January 2018 through April 2018, while he was on supervised release for the federal money laundering offense, Davis conspired with others to defraud Wells Fargo Bank. The conspiracy involved Davis traveling to Wells Fargo ATMs in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia, depositing worthless checks into accounts belonging to other account holders, and causing the ATMs to malfunction. The checks Davis deposited were ultimately dishonored by the issuing banks, but in some cases, any hold that Wells Fargo placed on the deposited checks expired before Wells Fargo discovered the fraud. In total, Davis used Wells Fargo ATMs to conduct 24 fraudulent check deposits totaling approximately $390,000 into various accounts. Participants in the conspiracy accessed approximately $144,000 from the accounts before the bank discovered the fraud.

            Davis was charged via criminal complaint with bank fraud in January 2019. He was initially held without bond, but then released on certain conditions, which included not committing any additional crimes.  In October 2019, a grand jury charged him with nine counts of bank fraud and nine counts of aggravated identity theft related to the bank fraud scheme. In January 2020, a grand jury returned a separate indictment charging him with seven counts of contempt, alleging that he committed additional fraudulent conduct while he was on pretrial release. As part of the plea agreement, the government agreed to dismiss all of the pending charges against Davis at his sentencing hearing.

            In addition to sentencing Davis to 27 months in prison, the Honorable Trevor N. McFadden ordered that Davis serve three years of supervised release and pay restitution and a forfeiture money judgment.

            In announcing the plea, Acting U.S. Attorney Sherwin and Special Agent in Charge Dawson commended the work of those from the FBI’s Washington Field Office who investigated the case. They also expressed appreciation to Paralegal Specialists Mariela Andrade and Amanda Rohde. Finally, they commended the work of former Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Saler, who investigated both cases, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kondi Kleinman and David Kent.