A man from Rockville, Maryland, was sentenced Friday to three years in federal prison for a yearlong bank fraud scheme that stole millions from local churches and religious organizations.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland said that Diape Seck, 29, helped carry out the fraud scheme that stole nearly $2 million in checks from the mail of religious institutions between January 2019 and January 2020.
Federal prosecutors said Seck, who was a customer service representative at a bank, opened 412 bank accounts with fake identities by mainly using Romanian passports and driver’s license information in exchange for cash bribes.
Seck was paid to open accounts for his at least eight co-conspirators, while at the same time working and conducting legitimate bank activities.
Checks payable to, and written from, churches and other institutions were deposited into many of those accounts and then withdrawn at ATMs in cash.
Co-conspirators also used fraudulent debit cards to rent cars which they didn’t return, resulting in charges by the rental car companies, which had to be written off by the bank.
According to court documents, the co-conspirators deposited at least $780,000 in stolen checks into the accounts and the bank had to write off at least $921,000 from the co-conspirators’ rental car scheme.
Seck and the co-conspirators were sentenced to federal prison and charged with conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud and are ordered to pay over one million dollars each in restitution.
