Former Jackson Police Officer Sentenced for Bank Fraud and Perjury in a Bankruptcy Case

Stan Harris, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi, and R. Michael Bolen, United States Trustee for Region 5, announced that Michael Anthony Jones was sentenced to 15 months incarceration for conviction of bank fraud and perjury on June 17, 2009, before Chief Judge Henry T. Wingate in U.S. District Court in Jackson. Jones was also sentenced to five years supervised release for the bank fraud and three years supervised release for perjury to run concurrently. Jones is to pay restitution in the amount of $29,652.04.

Jones, who was a Jackson Police Officer from 1992 to 1998, admitted to using his disabled minor son’s social security number to obtain a bank loan from the Members Exchange Credit Union to purchase a car. Jones subsequently used that social security number to file three successive bankruptcy cases to forestall repossession of the vehicle by the credit union and also gave false testimony under oath at a bankruptcy hearing before Honorable Edward Ellington, Chief Judge of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of Mississippi, in efforts to remain in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy.

The case was the result of a joint investigation involving the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the United States Trustee’s Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Office of the Inspector General of the Social Security Administration.