A convicted felon from Placentia was sentenced on Monday, Oct. 23, to seven and a half years in federal prison for conspiring with a bank employee and others using social media to commit a $1.2 million check fraud scheme.
Meshach Samuels, 26, pleaded guilty in May to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and two counts of being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
He was also ordered to pay $423,087 in restitution.
From May 2021 to March 2022, Samuels used Instagram to promote his Telegram chat groups to his followers which, for a fee, provided details on how to commit check fraud and recruit accomplices.
Samuels and his accomplices created fraudulent checks drawn from victims’ accounts using stolen information obtained from a bank teller and other sources, who would then deposit the checks into third-party accounts, according to his plea agreement.
Samuels and his accomplices would avoid triggering bank scrutiny by withdrawing less than $10,000 of the fraudulent money once the check was credited to the third-party account.
The bank teller was paid a portion of the cash obtained from negotiating the checks, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a press release.
Th scheme attempted to obtain at least roughly $1.2 million and caused actual losses of more than $423,000.
Samuels also admitted to stealing $14,520 from the California Employment Development Department by using stolen identities to submit applications for unemployment insurance during the pandemic, according to court records.
“As reflected by the voluminous actual and intended losses, [Samuels’] conduct was not the product of a short-term lapse in judgment but was calculated behavior that was mass-marketed on social media and engaged in for months, affecting scores of victims,” prosecutors argued in a sentencing memorandum. “The proceeds of the fraud were used to purchase luxury and high-end items and firearms.”
Samuels, whose criminal history includes felony convictions in Florida for aggravated battery on a law enforcement official, also admitted to unlawfully possessing firearms and ammunition.
During an August 2021 traffic stop in Costa Mesa, police officers found a firearm and ammunition concealed on his person; and in March 2022, federal agents searched Samuels’ residence and seized five firearms and ammunition.
In a related case, Sasha Lizette Jimenez, Samuels’ former girlfriend, pleaded guilty on May 22 to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud for running the EDD fraud scheme in which Samuels participated.
Jimenez, 26, who was the conspiracy’s bookkeeper, caused the issuance of at least $2.8 million in fraudulent UI benefit debit cards – and at least $2.3 million was withdrawn from those debit cards.
She is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 4.
