Carlos Banegas-Contreras, a 47-year-old Honduran national, was sentenced to 27 months in prison for one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, according to a July 17 announcement from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma.
The conviction stems from an investigation by multiple agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, the United States Secret Service, Indiana State Police, Benton County Sheriff’s Department and Prosecutor’s Office in Indiana, Poteau Police Department in Oklahoma, and Houston Police Department in Texas. Banegas-Contreras pleaded guilty on October 6, 2025.
Investigators said that in June 2023 Banegas-Contreras and others used fake identification cards to cash 178 fraudulent paychecks totaling $299,474 at three check-cashing businesses and five branches of a local bank. The checks were made to appear as if they had been issued by a building materials supply company located within the Eastern District of Oklahoma.
The sentencing hearing was presided over by Chief Judge John F. Heil III at the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma. Banegas-Contreras will remain in U.S. Marshals Service custody until he is transported to a designated Bureau of Prisons facility where he will serve his non-paroleable sentence. Assistant U.S. Attorney T. Cameron McEwen represented the government during prosecution.
The U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Oklahoma advances community wellness through federal trust responsibilities to sovereign Tribal Nations; maintains operational facilities in Muskogee; functions under the United States Department of Justice; handles federal criminal investigations and prosecutions as well as civil litigation and debt collection; represents the only federal judicial district fully within Indian country; and covers 26 counties including Adair and Atoka counties among others, according to its official website.