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Former First Union National (now Wachovia) Bank employee pleads guilty to aiding counterfeit check writing scheme

Washington, D.C. - Tara M. Wilson, a former employee for First Union National (now Wachovia) Bank ("FUNB"), has pleaded guilty to fraud the first degree in connection with her aiding a counterfeit check writing scheme at the bank, U.S. Attorney Kenneth L. Wainstein and Joseph Persichini, Jr., Acting Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI's Washington Field Office, announced today.

Wilson, 24, of the 500 block of Lamont Street, NW, entered her guilty plea at a hearing today in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia before the Honorable Rosemary M. Collyer, during which she admitted that from November of 2000 until March of 2001, she provided banking information to a group of individuals involved in a counterfeit check writing scheme and then cashed the counterfeit checks they brought to the bank. Wilson faces up to 10 years in prison under the D.C. fraud statute when sentenced in October of this year. Wilson has agreed to joint and several liability for restitution of $94,786 to the bank.

As part of her guilty plea, Wilson acknowledged that she worked as a teller at FUNB from November of 2000 to March of 2001. While working at the bank, Wilson had a discussion with a friend she knew from high school. The friend and others were involved in a counterfeit check writing scheme and the friend asked Wilson for her assistance in that scheme. Wilson agreed to assist these individuals in their scheme.

Thereafter, Wilson provided copies of corporate checks for ten or more corporations to the individuals involved in the check writing scheme. In late-February or early-March of 2001, the individuals involved in the check writing scheme came into the FUNB where Wilson worked to cash counterfeit checks that had been produced using the information provided to them by Wilson. Each individual presented a picture identification in the name of the payee of the check. At least five separate individuals came into the bank with checks. After Wilson finished work for the day, she met with the individuals involved in the scheme, who paid her $1,000 for her assistance in cashing the counterfeit checks.

The individuals involved in the check writing scheme came into FUNB about four or five separate times. Wilson recalled being paid a total amount of $5,000 to $6,000 for her assistance in the scheme.

Wilson stopped cashing the counterfeit checks after she was questioned by bank security and was then terminated from her job with the bank. In total, there were approximately 60 counterfeit checks passed through Wilson as part of the scheme, for a total amount of approximately $94,786.

One of the individuals involved in the check writing scheme was Sean Anthony Williams. Williams owned a computer that was used by the individuals in the check writing scheme to print the counterfeit checks in Williams' home. Williams pled guilty in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, in October of 2005 to a one-count information charging bank fraud for his role in using these counterfeit checks at banks in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. Williams was sentenced on April 7, 2006, to 15 months in prison and ordered to make restitution to the banks defrauded.

In announcing today's guilty plea from Wilson, U.S. Attorney Wainstein and Acting Assistant Director Persichini praised the hard work of FBI Special Agent James Godley, who investigated this matter. They also acknowledged the efforts of Legal Assistant Teesha Tobias, as well as Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel P. Butler, who is prosecuting this matter.