Woman Charged in Fraud Scheme Against Dwelling House Savings and Loan

PITTSBURGH—A resident of Pittsburgh, Penn., has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Pittsburgh on charges of bank fraud and money laundering, United States Attorney David J. Hickton announced today.

The 11-count indictment, returned on Aug. 24, 2010, and unsealed today, named Jammie E. Harris, a/k/a Jammie E. Williams Harris, 45.

According to the indictment, Harris executed a scheme to defraud Dwelling House Savings and Loan (DHSL) of its assets using fraudulent Automated Clearing House (ACH) transactions. Harris opened a PayPal account and associated her DHSL bank account to the PayPal account. Using PayPal to initiate ACH transactions, she caused disbursement from DHSL in amounts that far exceeded any balance she had in her account at DHSL. Those insufficient funds transactions were not rejected and reversed by DHSL personnel. The loss attributed to Harris is at least $1,101,264.60. Harris also was charged with money laundering transactions that produced checks derived from proceeds of bank fraud located at a local credit union.

The law provides for a maximum total sentence of 290 years in prison, a fine of $9,500,000, or both. Under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, the actual sentence imposed would be based upon the seriousness of the offenses and the prior criminal history, if any, of the defendant.

Assistant United States Attorney Paul E. Hull is prosecuting this case on behalf of the government.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation, and the City of Pittsburgh Bureau of Police conducted the investigation leading to the indictment in this case.

An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is presumed innocent and is entitled to a fair trial at which the government must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.