SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Reginald Lamont Thomas, 47, of Fairfield, pleaded guilty today to nine counts of bank fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.
According to court documents, between April 2018 and September 2019, Thomas used a victim’s personal identifying information to take over the victim’s checking and savings account at Wells Fargo. Thomas convinced Wells Fargo representatives to change the address information on the victim’s Wells Fargo accounts to an address associated with Thomas and to ship a new debit card to Thomas at the new address. Thomas then used the debit card to make various unauthorized transactions, including buying a used car at a dealership in Solano County and paying for a subscription to the dating service Plenty of Fish. In total, Thomas incurred approximately $112,874 in debit card charges. All of the conduct in this case occurred while Thomas was on a term of federal supervised release.
This case is the product of an investigation by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Denise N. Yasinow and Roger Yang are prosecuting the case.
Thomas is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez on Oct. 25, 2022. For the bank fraud counts, Thomas faces a maximum statutory penalty of up to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million. For the aggravated identity theft count, he faces a mandatory consecutive sentence of two years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.