08/04/2022

Illinois man admits depositing hundreds of worthless checks in $157,000 bank fraud scheme

The United States Attorneys Office ~ District of Missouri

ST. LOUIS – A man from Granite City on Tuesday admitted a bank fraud scheme that cost Commerce bank more than $150,000.

Clarence Wigfall Jr., 32, admitted that beginning on March 14, 2018, he defrauded the bank by depositing hundreds of worthless checks into dozens of people’s accounts.

Wigfall asked Commerce Bank account holders in public Facebook posts and elsewhere to give him their debit cards and account information in exchange for cash. Wigfall then deposited worthless checks into their accounts via ATMs in eastern Missouri and southern Illinois. He and his associates then withdrew money before the bank realized that the checks had been written on frozen accounts, blocked accounts, closed accounts, fake accounts and accounts with insufficient funds. Some of the checks also had forged signatures. Wigfall regularly used a piece of paper to shield himself from the ATM cameras.

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