Joplin man pleads guilty to bank fraud scheme
A Joplin man pleaded guilty Thursday to wire fraud in a scheme in which he defrauded both local banks and individual members of the community.
According to federal court records, Maliq Ray, 21, reached out to people on social media with his plan to conduct what he called "reverse transactions."
The plan was to deposit fake checks from Coffeyville Community College or Santander Consumer USA and then withdraw the money as soon as it was available. Ray said he would split the money with people, but kept it for himself. According to court records, Ray would often withdraw all the money in an account, rather than just the amount that was falsely deposited.
Authorities say Ray withdrew $176,007.48 over the course of about six months in 2022.
Police in both Joplin and Neosho were alerted after several people reported being contacted by Ray, who said he was running a business to make them money. To make that happen, the individuals would give their bank account information to Ray.
More:Ozarks Technical Community College robbed of $900K through online fraud
The FBI took over the investigation, speaking to victims and reviewing ATM camera footage that appeared to identify Ray as the person making withdrawals.
Sentencing information isn't yet available, but the range of sentencing for wire fraud can be as little as probation and as much as 20 years in prison, depending on several different factors.
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Joplin man pleads guilty to bank fraud scheme
