Laplace Man Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud

Acting U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans announced that DARYL ALEX, age 51, of LaPlace, pled guilty today to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

According to court documents, ALEX and his wife, SHAWANDA NEVERS, conspired together to unjustly enrich themselves by using and attempting to use bank accounts and credit cards issued in the name of NEVERS’s deceased father and to steal funds and obtain property to which they were not entitled. Although NEVERS’s father had died on May 5, 2017, on or about May 23, 2016, ALEX placed a telephone call to a credit card company, claiming to be NEVERS’s father. ALEX falsely stated to the credit card company that he had lost his credit card and asked that a replacement card be mailed to his new address in LaPlace. ALEX also made purchases with bad checks drawn on the bank account of NEVERS’s father, using Social Security Administration funds that were deposited after the father’s death.

ALEX faces a statutory maximum sentence of twenty years in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and a maximum fine of $250,000. ALEX also faces monetary penalties and restitution. U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan set sentencing for December 7, 2017.

Acting U.S. Duane A. Evans commended Special Agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation and the United States Secret Service, New Orleans Field Office for investigating this matter. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Hayden Brockett and Loan “Mimi” Nguyen, and Trial Attorney Grace Albinson of the Department of Justice, Tax Division, are in charge of the prosecution.