Mass. man gets prison time for bank fraud, money laundering as part of stolen treasury check ring

BOSTON — A Quincy man has been sentenced to federal prison for bank fraud and money laundering, the U.S. Attorney said.

Eric Banks, 71, is among eight local people charged in this scheme involving millions in stolen U.S. Treasury checks. He was sentenced to 14 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, U.S. Attorney Leah Foley said in a statement this week.

Chief U.S. District Court Judge Denise Casper handed down his sentence on March 4.

Banks pleaded guilty in November to one count of bank fraud and five counts of money laundering.

Banks obtained a stolen U.S. Treasury check for $1,127,331.80 made out to a New York-based company, prosecutors said.

Banks formed a Massachusetts-based entity with the same name, opened a bank account for that fake entity, and deposited the check.

Prosecutors said Banks then conducted multiple illegal money transactions to conceal the source of the funds from the stolen Treasury check.

Banks also created a second fake entity and opened a bank account using its name.

Other people who obtained and deposited stolen U.S. Treasury checks then transferred more than $1.3 million to this bank account created by Banks.

Seven other people were charged as part of this scheme, according to prosecutors:

1. Gino Rosario Tyler Alexander Allegra, 31, of Brockton, charged with theft of $861,646 in government funds;

2. Jesse El-Ghoul, 31, of Leominster, charged with theft of $1,355,863 in government funds;

3. Nnamdi Opara, 30, of Woburn, charged with theft of $700,767 in government funds;

4. Gurprit Singh, 34, of Framingham, charged with theft of $2,547,508 in government funds;

5. Amarpreet Singh, 33, of Framingham, charged with theft of $536,214 in government funds;

6. Lonnie Smith-Matthews, 33, of Hyde Park, charged with theft of $150,000 in government funds and bank fraud of $232,588; and

7. Domingo Villari, 49, of Framingham, charged with theft of $1,288,575 in government funds.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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