Felon Who Defrauded Credit Unions in the Midwest Sentenced to Federal Prison

A seven-time felon who, along with another person, used fake military IDs and passports to steal money from credit unions was sentenced on December 1, 2025, to more than seven years in federal prison.

Jeffrey Blake Palmer, age 44, from Davenport, Iowa, received the prison term after a May 27, 2025, guilty plea to one count of financial institution fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.

Information from the plea and sentencing hearings showed that from June 22, 2021, through September 30, 2021, Palmer and his coconspirator, Maegen Fortin, used stolen personal information, such as dates of birth and Social Security numbers, to apply for checking accounts, saving accounts, credit cards, lines of credit, and loans from credit unions.  Palmer and Fortin provided false documents and IDs, including fraudulent United States passports, military IDs, state driver’s licenses, and employment documents, to the credit unions with their applications.  In one instance in June 2021, Palmer and Fortin used assumed names and stolen personal identifiers to open a joint account at a credit union in Cedar Rapids.  They applied for two auto loans totaling more than $57,000 from the credit union.  Based on their fraudulent applications, the credit union deposited the loan proceeds into an account under their control.  

Palmer has a long criminal history that includes seven prior adult felony convictions.  On August 4, 2023, Fortin was sentenced to 93 months’ imprisonment on charges related to this scheme.  

Palmer was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge C.J. Williams.  Palmer was sentenced to 94 months’ imprisonment.  He was ordered to make $253,572.26 in restitution to victims of the offense.  He must also serve a five-year term of supervised release after the prison term.  There is no parole in the federal system.

Palmer is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Kyndra Lundquist and investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  

Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.

The case file number is 24-CR-113.

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