Man Swindles Money From Bank Customers, Faces Prison Time

Hyattsville MD

07 January, 2022

11:35 AM

Description

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, MD — A Hyattsville man has pleaded guilty to a federal charge of conspiracy to commit bank fraud for his role in a scheme where Wells Fargo Bank customers lost $124,000 from their accounts. Michael Drummond, 35, faces up to 33 months in prison, a restitution order and a fine of up to $60,000. He also has agreed to pay $124,000 in a forfeiture money judgment. According to the evidence, the participants in the scheme attempted to steal an additional $80,000 from the bank's customers, but the bank detected that fraud and stopped the loss. When entering his plea, Drummond admitted to orchestrating a scheme carried out in 2017 in which Drummond recruited bank employees to make unauthorized withdrawals from Wells Fargo customer accounts. The bank employees used the bank's internal systems to check the account balances of customers without the customer's knowledge. Those employees then told Drummond the customer's name and account balance. Drummond then sent another accomplice into the bank to pose as the customer and to withdraw the funds, without the actual customer knowing. The conspirators used this scheme to steal $124,000 in cash and an $80,000 cashier's check from two of the bank's customers. Although Wells Fargo was able to detect the theft and stop payment of the $80,000 cashier's check, Wells Fargo incurred losses on behalf of its customers for the $124,000 in cash that Drummond and others stole. Another conspirator, Tiara Langston, 30, of Upper Marlboro, entered a guilty plea in November 2020 to related charges and was sentenced in March 2021 to a 15-month prison term.