Tampa Woman Pleads Guilty To Bank Fraud Conspiracy

Tampa, FL – Jamelah Y. Martinez (23, Tampa) today pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud. She faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in federal prison. A sentencing date has not yet been set.

According to the plea agreement, in 2016 and 2017, while working for Suncoast Credit Union, Martinez used her access to Suncoast customer accounts to steal account information. She then sold the information to a co-conspirator. Martinez’s co-conspirators used the stolen account information to fraudulently takeover the bank accounts. The conspirators deposited fraudulent checks into the victim accounts and then immediately transferred the fraudulently obtained funds to other co-conspirators, who maintained accounts at Suncoast. Once the fraudulent funds were received into the co-conspirators’ accounts, they were extracted via ATM withdrawals and debit card transactions. The co-conspirators shared in the proceeds.

The loss to Suncoast related to Martinez’s involvement in this scheme was $115,487.75. The investigation into Martinez’s co-conspirators is ongoing. One co-conspirator, Devin Williams, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and is scheduled to be sentenced on December 4, 2018.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Housing Finance Agency. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mandy Riedel and Special Assistant United States Attorney Chris Poor.