Hartford Man Involved in Bank Fraud Scheme is Sentenced

David B. Fein, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that TYLON MIMS, 36, of Hartford, was sentenced today by United States District Judge Janet Bond Arterton in New Haven to 20 months of imprisonment for his involvement in a bank fraud scheme. On September 28, 2009, MIMS pleaded guilty to two counts of bank fraud.

According to court documents and statements made in court, MIMS’ co-defendant, Troy Moody, conspired with two Bank of America employees, Brenda Jones and Lakisha Williams, to steal business checks from the Bank of America lockbox processing center in East Hartford. The employees provided Moody with at least three checks totaling approximately $390,000 that were stolen from the lockbox. Moody then provided two of the stolen checks to MIMS.

In April 2007, Patricia May, at MIMS’ direction, registered with the City of Hartford a business in the name of “Health New England Services.” The real Health New England, located in Springfield, Massachusetts, did not give May permission to use its name or to open any account in its name. Shortly thereafter, Miosotis Garcia, also at MIMS’ direction, registered a business with the City of Hartford in the name of “Health New England Gym.” Garcia then opened a business checking account at a branch of Bank of America in Hartford in the name of “Health New England Gym,” and May opened a business checking account at a branch of New Alliance Bank in Hartford under the name “Health New England Services.”

On April 13, 2007, Garcia, at MIMS’ direction, deposited a stolen check in the amount of $156,601.96, payable to “Health New England,” into the business checking account at Bank of America. On April 19, 2007, MIMS and Garcia withdrew $60,000 in cash and $96,620.96 in cashiers’ checks from the account before the bank realized the check was stolen.

On April 27, 2007, Patricia May, at MIMS’s direction, deposited a stolen check in the amount of $116,349.89, payable to “Health New England,” into the fraudulent checking account at New Alliance Bank. May subsequently was able to withdraw $22,000 in cash from the account before the bank realized the fraud and froze the account.

At the time of his involvement in this conspiracy, MIMS was on supervised release following a previous federal conviction for conspiring to distribute heroin. On September 13, 2000, MIMS was sentenced to 110 months of imprisonment, followed by five years of supervised release. MIMS was released from the custody of the Bureau of Prisons on March 11, 2007.

MIMS was initially found to be in violation of his supervised release following an August 5, 2008, arrest on by the Hartford Police on various narcotics charges.

On June 11, 2010, U.S. District Judge Christopher F. Droney sentenced MIMS to 46 months of imprisonment for violating the conditions of his supervised release. Today, Judge Arterton ordered the 20-month sentence on the bank fraud convictions to run consecutively with the 46-month sentence imposed last month, for a total effective sentence of 66 months of imprisonment. Judge Arterton also ordered MIMS to pay, jointly and severally with other members of the conspiracy, restitution in the amount of $178,601.96.

MIMS has been detained since his federal arrest on April 21, 2009.

Moody, May, Garcia, Jones, and Williams have each pleaded guilty to bank fraud charges stemming from this scheme. May and Garcia have received a sentence of two years of probation and an order to pay restitution to Bank of America. Moody, Jones and Williams await sentencing.

This matter was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys David E. Novick and Paul H. McConnell.