A Henrico man has been sentenced to three years and ten months in prison for his involvement in a bank fraud conspiracy. Deonte Trent, 31, was found guilty of participating in a scheme known as "card-cracking" from June 2018 through April 2020.
Court documents reveal that Trent bribed employees and tellers at Wells Fargo to obtain confidential information such as names, addresses, bank account numbers, and Social Security numbers of existing customers. Using this data, he created fraudulent checks.
Trent also persuaded some Wells Fargo customers to let him deposit these fraudulent checks into their accounts with the promise of financial compensation. He even recruited individuals to open new accounts at Wells Fargo for the same purpose. These account holders would provide Trent with their debit cards and PINs to facilitate deposits and withdrawals before the fraud was detected by the bank.
In certain cases, Trent coached complicit account holders on how to respond when contacted by Wells Fargo representatives about the fraudulent activities. He instructed them to give false information during these interactions.
The announcement of Trent's sentencing was made by Erik S. Siebert, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, alongside Brent Daniels, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Secret Service’s Richmond Field Office. The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Judge David J. Novak.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Heather H. Mansfield and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Kashan Pathan.
Further details about this case can be found on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia or through PACER under Case No. 3:24-cr-136.