A Mississippi man has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud which resulted in the loss of over $1 million.
Court documents show Aaron Brown, 42, of Lamar County, conspired with multiple individuals beginning in January 2021 to use his auto sales company and companies owned by co-conspirators to engage in a systematic check kiting scheme.
As part of the conspiracy, the bad actors would continuously issue and deposit nonsufficient fund checks into their companies’ bank accounts. Many of the checks, according to information presented in court, indicated they were for vehicle sales that had not actually occurred.
Prior to the initiation of the scheme, between May and December 2020, Brown’s auto sales company received a total of 163 incoming checks and issued a total of 50 checks. This resulted in over $5 million in deposits and withdrawals. However, between June and August 2021, the company received a total of 1,204 checks and issued 1,161 checks to just one of the companies owned by his co-conspirators. The total deposits and withdrawals for that three-month period exceeded $60 million.
Noticing the influx in numbers, the financial institutions discovered the scheme and stopped the payment but not without one of them losing over $1 million.
Brown pleaded guilty on Tuesday to conspiracy to commit bank fraud. He will be sentenced on Oct. 22, 2024, and faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine. A federal judge will determine his sentence.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Buckner.
