Woman Pleads Guilty to Bank Fraud and Money Laundering

PITTSBURGH—A former resident of Pittsburgh, Pennsylania pleaded guilty in federal court to charges of bank fraud and money laundering, United States Attorney David J. Hickton announced today.

Jammie E. Harris, a/k/a Jammie E. Williams, 46, pleaded guilty to two counts before Senior United States District Judge Alan N. Bloch.

In connection with the guilty plea, the court was advised that Harris executed a scheme to defraud Dwelling House Savings and Loan (DHSL) of its assets using fraudulent 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 pleaded guilty to money laundering for a transaction that produced a check derived from proceeds of bank fraud located at a local credit union.

Judge Bloch scheduled sentencing for Aug. 11, 2011, at 12:30 p.m. The law provides for a total sentence of 40 years in prison, a fine of $1,250,000, or both. Under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, the actual sentence imposed is based upon the seriousness of the offenses and the 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 that led to the prosecution of Jammie E. Harris a/k/a Jammie E. Williams.