Fairbanks Woman Sentenced to 18 Months in Federal Prison for $100,000 Bank Fraud

ANCHORAGE, AK—United States Attorney Karen L. Loeffler announced that on April 16, 2010, Michelle Lynn Green, a resident of Fairbanks, Alaska, was sentenced in federal court in Fairbanks to 18 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release for bank fraud. Restitution was also ordered by the Court.

Chief United States District Court Judge Ralph R. Beistline imposed the sentence on Green.

Green was convicted of the offense after entering a plea of guilty on February 5, 2010. According to information presented to the court by Assistant United States Attorneys Stephen Cooper and Aunnie Steward, Green defrauded USAA Federal Savings Bank (USAA Bank) of approximately $24,441, and several other local Fairbanks businesses of various sums of money, for a total loss amount of approximately $100,000.

According to court documents, from January 2007, through August 2007, Green defrauded USAA Bank. Green applied online and opened six accounts at USAA Bank in her husband’s name. Green funded these six accounts with fraudulent transfers of money from other banks knowing that she was using invalid bank account numbers to fund the transfers. Green then depleted the funds before the fraudulent transfers were detected by USAA Bank.

Green executed the scheme multiple times by electronically transferring funds out of these six USAA Bank accounts via the internet and by using debit cards associated with these accounts to make purchases and to withdraw cash before USAA Bank detected that the electronic transfers conducted to make the opening deposits were fraudulent. The total loss to USAA Bank from Green’s scheme is approximately $24,441.

During this time, from May 2007 to September 2007, Green also wrote approximately 51 checks from USAA Bank, knowing that the account they were written from did not have sufficient funds. The total amount from the checks Green wrote with insufficient funds is $73,575.69.

Ms. Loeffler commended the Federal Bureau of Investigation for the investigation leading to the successful prosecution of Green.