Waterloo Woman Sentenced to Federal Prison in Check Fraud Scheme

A Waterloo woman who stole nearly $250,000 from three financial institutions between 2020 and 2022 was sentenced today to more than two years in federal prison.  Angela Celina Hernandez, formerly known as Angela Celina Sermeno, age 40, from Waterloo, Iowa, received the prison term after a May 31, 2024, guilty plea to one count of bank fraud.

In a plea agreement, Hernandez admitted that she was the sole signatory on a checking account for a roofing company at a credit union in Dubuque.  In January 2020, Hernandez repeatedly redeposited previously cleared checks from a Wisconsin contractor in order to falsely and temporarily inflate the balance of the account.  Hernandez then caused over $150,000 in rapid transfers and withdrawals on this fraudulently and temporarily inflated balance.  Then, in July 2021, Hernandez passed bad checks at a second credit union, resulting in over $75,000 in loss to that credit union.  Finally, in February 2022, defendant passed more bad checks at a third financial institution, resulting in an additional $12,000 in loss.

Hernandez was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge C.J. Williams.  Hernandez was sentenced to 27 months’ imprisonment.  She was ordered to make $248,005.28 in restitution the three financial institutions.  She must also serve a five-year term of supervised release after the prison term.  There is no parole in the federal system.

Hernandez was released on the bond previously set and is to surrender to the  Bureau of Prisons on a date yet to be set until she can be transported to a federal prison.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Timothy L. Vavricek and investigated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons.  

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

The case file number is 23-CR-1031.

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