Marvell Trevenski Jackson, Jr., age 26, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was sentenced to 48 months in federal prison following his convictions for conspiracy to commit bank fraud and theft of mail, according to an Aug. 3 announcement by U.S. Attorney Kurt L. Wall. United States District Judge Brian A. Jackson also ordered Jackson to serve three years of supervised release after imprisonment, pay $378,394 in restitution, and forfeit $238,804.45 to the United States.
According to admissions made as part of his guilty plea, Jackson conspired with others to defraud federally insured financial institutions including Neighbor’s Federal Credit Union (NFCU), Essential Federal Credit Union (EFCU), First Guarantee Bank and Trust (FGB), Navy Federal Credit Union (Navy FCU), and Regions Bank. The group used various methods such as stealing or obtaining stolen mail for personal and financial information of bank customers; altering or washing checks stolen from the mail; creating counterfeit checks using stolen account information; sending spam text messages designed to trick customers into revealing credentials; and using this information to unlawfully access victim accounts.
Jackson also recruited individuals known as “money mules” who opened new accounts or used existing ones to receive fraudulent proceeds. Once deposited into these accounts held by money mules or co-conspirators, the funds were withdrawn—mules kept a portion while most went back to Jackson.
Additionally, authorities said that Jackson stole mail—including personal and business checks totaling at least $20,378—from blue collection boxes at the U.S. Postal Service office on Florida Street in Baton Rouge. Stolen checks totaling over $270,000 were later found at a residence used by Jackson along with tools needed for printing counterfeit checks.
In total, officials say that Jackson and his conspirators obtained or attempted to obtain over $500,000 through altered or counterfeit checks created from stolen U.S. mail data. Members of the conspiracy also engaged in “smishing,” which uses SMS text messages purporting to be from reputable companies in order to induce victims into revealing personal banking information—a scheme executed across East Baton Rouge Parish, Iberville Parish, Livingston Parish and others—defrauding institutions like NFCU, EFCU and FGB along with their customers out of more than $300,000.
U.S. Attorney Kurt L. Wall praised law enforcement agencies involved in investigating this matter: “This was a fantastic effort by a team of agencies that worked together along with Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul L. Pugliese. Marvell Jackson is a professional scammer and deserves every day of that sentence and more,” Wall said.