Texas Credit Union Employee Sentenced for Bank Fraud Conspiracy

(Beaumont, Texas) It’s simple but everyone in Texas needs to understand that if you commit a crime in the Lone Star State you will have to face the consequences.

Bank Fraud Conspiracy in Texas

As you probably know if the United States Attorney’s Office gets involved in a criminal investigation it has to be very serious.

Recently there were details released about a Texas man sentenced to federal prison for bank fraud conspiracy in the Eastern District of Texas.

Who Was Convicted and When Did the Crime Occur?

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, 40-year-old Billy Ray Thomas Jr. pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit bank fraud and was sentenced to 34 months in federal prison and is ordered to pay restitution of $1,363,825.18

All the Details Regarding the Fraud Conspiracy Case

Thomas was originally hired by Neches Federal Credit Union in May of 2005 at the Pearl Street Branch in Beaumont.

After years with the credit union, he was promoted to assistant branch manager and had some responsibilities serving as a loan officer.

It was September 6, 2018, when a credit union member contacted the business about loans reflected on their account they did not request.

In the next few weeks more people contacted the credit union, it was as many as 30 members in total, all of whom were associated with Thomas.

The investigation revealed that Thomas was working with another individual to commit bank fraud by using family members and acquaintances as the identified borrowers.

The victims all stated they did not sign documents and if they did sign something they didn’t know about the loan because they trusted Thomas implicitly.

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Lesson to Learn from This Case

We should all learn from this case that you should never sign anything without knowing exactly what it is.

Also, keep a close eye on all of your banking information to ensure there are no lines or credit or loans in your name that you don’t know about.

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Source: Texas Credit Union Employee Gets Prison Time for Fraud Conspiracy