Judge Orders Rockville Man To Pay $1.7M In Restitution For Defrauding Bank, Churches

GREENBELT, MD — Diape Seck, a 29-year-old Rockville man, was sentenced Friday to three years in federal prison and three years of supervised release for his role in a conspiracy to defraud a bank of nearly $2 million, as well as the theft of checks from the mail of churches and religious institutions, according to a U.S. Department of Justice release.

U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang also ordered Seck to pay $1,708,446.49 in restitution and to forfeit $114,647.50. Seck, a former bank customer service employee, was found guilty in February of conspiracy to commit bank fraud; bank fraud; making false entries in bank records; and receipt of a bribe or reward by a bank employee.

Evidence presented in the eight-day trial showed that Seck conspired with Mateus Vaduva, Marius Vaduva, Vlad Baceanu, Nicolae Gindac, Florin Vaduva, Marian Unguru, Daniel Velcu, Vali Unguru and others to commit bank fraud.

From January 2019 to January 2020, Seck opened bank accounts with fake identities in exchange for cash bribes, according to court documents. His co-conspirators used the accounts to deposit checks stolen from the incoming and outgoing mail of churches and other religious institutions, as well as a rental car fraud they were conducting. They later withdrew the money from the accounts and spent the proceeds.

As part of the conspiracy, Seck opened hundreds of fake accounts, sometimes with his co-conspirators using foreign identity documents, at the bank he was employed at and at other financial institutions. He even opened accounts without his co-conspirators being present, according to court documents. In exchange for opening these accounts, Seck received cash payments from his co-conspirators.

Seck violated numerous bank policies by opening around 412 checking accounts from about Jan. 2, 2019 through Jan. 3, 2020, based on court documents and witness testimony.