Henrico man sentenced to nearly four years in prison for fraudulent check scheme

RICHMOND, Va. – A Henrico man was sentenced today to three years and 10 months in prison for conspiracy to commit bank fraud.

According to court documents, from at least June 2018 through April 2020, Deonte Trent, 31, engaged in a scheme known as "card-cracking." Trent offered money to employees and tellers at Wells Fargo to secretly provide him with the names, addresses, bank account numbers, and Social Security numbers of existing Wells Fargo customers. Trent then used the bank customers' personal information to produce fraudulent checks.

Trent also solicited existing customers of Wells Fargo to allow him to deposit fraudulent checks into the customers' own bank accounts. In exchange, Trent promised to financially compensate these complicit account holders. In some instances, Trent recruited people to open a bank account with Wells Fargo and to allow Trent to deposit fraudulent checks. The account holders would typically provide Trent with their Wells Fargo debit cards and associated PIN numbers to receive deposits and, after completing the fraudulent deposits, withdraw the funds before Wells Fargo realized the checks were fraudulent.

In some instances, Trent provided guidance and coaching to complicit account holders when those individuals were contacted by representatives of Wells Fargo regarding the fraudulent checks. Trent instructed these account holders to provide Wells Fargo with false information.

Erik S. Siebert, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Brent Daniels, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Secret Service’s Richmond Field Office, made the announcement after sentencing by U.S. District Judge David J. Novak.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Heather H. Mansfield and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Kashan Pathan prosecuted the case.

A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Related court documents and information are located on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 3:24-cr-136.