BOSTON – A Malden man was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Boston for his role in a scheme to fraudulently obtain funds from customer bank accounts.
Lajerran Long, 27, was sentenced by U.S. Senior District Court Judge Mark L. Wolf to nine months in prison and three years of supervised release. Long was also ordered to pay restitution of $357,333 and forfeiture of $5,000. On June 14, 2021, Long pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud conspiracy.
This case was the result of a larger investigation into multiple schemes to withdraw funds, in the form of checks and cash, from customer accounts at several financial institutions. The organizers of the scheme paid individuals to go into banks with falsified identification documents in the names of bank customers and request withdrawals from those customers’ accounts. Bank tellers were also recruited to accept the falsified identification documents without scrutiny and facilitate the withdrawals. The fraudulently-obtained funds were then negotiated through accounts at other financial institutions that had been opened in the names of fictitious business entities.
Long was paid to recruit a teller at Santander Bank to participate in this scheme. In December 2017 and January 2018, co-conspirators utilized this bank teller to fraudulently withdraw more than $800,000. The majority of the fraudulently-obtained funds were subsequently recovered by the bank.
Acting United States Attorney Nathaniel R. Mendell and Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division made the announcement. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Leslie A. Wright and Christopher J. Markham of Mendell’s Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit prosecuted the case.
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