Former Federal Credit Union Employee From Jessup Sentenced In Financial Fraud Scheme

HOWARD COUNTY, MD — A 30-year-old Jessup man has been sentenced to prison for his role in a financial scam.

According to the evidence presented at his four-day trial, Jalen Craig McMillan used his position at a federal credit union to open accounts in the names of identity theft victims and conduct financial transactions, including opening loans. As detailed at trial and in court documents, co-defendant Archie Paul and his co-conspirators obtained, possessed and used fake identities and the personal information of real people that Paul and co-defendant John Fitzgerald Washington used to make fake documents showing the personal information of the victims, but photographs of others, according to court documents.

Paul, co-defendant Tiffany Rainel Williams and others then used the fake documents to impersonate the victims and, with the help of McMillan and others, opened bank accounts and conducted financial transactions in their names, including making large withdrawals from the victims’ accounts, the prosecution said.

In addition to conspiracy and bank fraud charges, McMillan was convicted of aggravated identity theft for providing the identifying information of a bank customer to Paul, knowing that it would be used in the fraud scheme, prosecutors noted.

Trial evidence proved that the conspirators intended to fraudulently obtain more than $400,000 from the bank and successfully defrauded the bank of more than $150,000, court documents stated.

Co-defendants Paul Archie, a/k/a Carter Hill and Zion Davis, 31, of Laurel, Maryland; John Fitzgerald Washington, 52, of Waldorf, Maryland; and Tiffany Rainel Williams, 37, of Glenarden, previously pleaded guilty to their roles in the conspiracy and are awaiting sentencing.

McMillan has been sentenced to 54 months in federal prison, five years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution of $165,891.68.