Obtaining or seeking almost $2 million by fraud, largely from churches and religious organizations, and then opening bank accounts for the ill-gotten gains has earned a Maryland man a three-year prison term, the federal bank deposit insurance agency said Monday.
According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s (FDIC) Office of Inspector General (OIG), Diape Seck, 29, of Rockville, Md., was given the sentence last week. A former employee of a bank (which was unnamed by the OIG), he was convicted in February of check fraud and rental car fraud.
In addition to the three-year prison sentence, Seck was also given three years supervised release and ordered to pay restitution of $1.7 million and to forfeit more than $114,600.
According to the OIG, evidence presented at trial showed Seck fraudulently opened bank accounts in fake identities in exchange for cash bribes. Co-conspirators, the OIG said, engaged in fraud involving rental cars and the deposit of checks stolen from the incoming and outgoing mail of churches and other religious institutions into the fraudulently opened bank accounts. The co-conspirators then withdrew the funds and spent the fraudulently obtained proceeds, the OIG said.