Owings Mills Man Indicted On Bank Fraud Charges

An Owings Mills man has been indicted after authorities allege he defrauded an Illinois bank out of approximately $141,000. He is being held in Illinois on bank and wire fraud charges.

Prosecutors allege Lovette Namatinga, 32, of Owings Mills, made false claims over email that led the Municipal Trust and Savings Bank, which is based south of Chicago, to make four deposits into an account that Namatinga pretended was going to his company but instead went to him.

The checks were made payable to Keiko San Products, for which Namatinga is the registered agent, his indictment states, but the emails falsely represented that the secretary for one of the bank's loan customers requested the four checks be mailed to an address in Owings Mills, which was actually Namatinga's home that he pretended was the address for Keiko San Products.

The loan customer had not made the request at all in reality, the indictment says.

According to the indictment, the checks were for four amounts, made payable to Keiko San Products:

• $37,650.40
• $41,200.40
• $40,506.70
• $21,650.70

Namatinga deposited the checks into Keiko business accounts at Wells Fargo Bank and SunTrust Bank, then withdrew the cash or transferred the money to his personal Wells Fargo account, according to the indictment.

Municipal Trust and Savings Bank lost $141,008.20 as a result of his actions from Feb. 26 to April 8, 2019, the indictment says.

Namatinga, who lives in Owings Mills but is a Cameroon national, was arrested at Dulles International Airport on Monday, Oct. 7, according to the Daily Journal, an Illinois newspaper, which said if convicted he faces 30 years and a $1 million fine for each count of bank fraud and 20 years and $250,000 for each count of wire fraud. Namatinga was charged with four counts of bank fraud and four counts of wire fraud.

He has been ordered to forfeit the money and is being held in Illinois pending a hearing to determine next steps.