A Texas college basketball star, her fiancé and five others were indicted Wednesday in a $237,000 bank fraud scheme that victimized eight large and midsize credit unions and 13 big banks across the nation.
Jenzel Nash, 23, a forward for the University of Texas at El Paso women’s basketball team, was charged with conspiracy to commit bank fraud and making false statements on loan or credit applications, according to federal prosecutors.
Nash allegedly applied for a $14,858 loan at the $2.4 billion GECU in El Paso and falsely claimed she earned a monthly salary of $2,472 on her August 2014 loan application, according to the indictment.
GECU is a corporate sponsor of the UTEP women’s basketball program.
“We are a proud UTEP Pillar Partner; we share common goals of elevating our community through education,” GECU said in prepared statement. “The current case is unrelated to our partnership. This is a law enforcement matter and we cannot comment on any details of the investigation.”
In addition, federal prosecutors alleged Nash also applied for a $6,692 loan at the $319 million Evolve Federal Credit Union in El Paso. She allegedly claimed to earn a $4,600 monthly salary on a March 2015 loan application.
According to the El Paso Times, Nash’s fiancé, Terrance Yelder, 25, a former New Mexico State University football player who live in El Paso, allegedly applied for a $45,798 loan at GECU in November 2015 and falsely claimed he earned $6,700 a month. What’s more, in December 2015, Yelder also applied for at $20,627 loan at GECU and falsely claimed to be earning $6,608 monthly.
The 16–count indictment also charged 38–year-old Michael Nedal Annabi of Santa Teresa, N.M.; his wife, 33-year-old Perla Maldonado Annabi; 33-year-old Basem Elgelda of Petaluma, Calif.; 29-year-old Miguel Munoz of Santa Teresa, N.M.; and 20-year-old Daniel Munoz of Santa Teresa, N.M, with conspiracy to commit bank fraud and making false statements on a loan or credit application.
According to the indictment, the defendants conspired from July 31, 2013, to March 22, 2016, to defraud 21 financial institutions nationwide in connection with a loan scheme. The indictment, however, does not explain how this group worked together to carry out the alleged fraud or how it was uncovered.
In addition to GECU and Evolve FCU, the other victimized credit unions named in the indictment were the $465 million PrimeWay Federal Credit union in Houston, the $5.4 billion Teachers Federal Credit Union in Hauppauge, N.Y., the $295 million White Sands Federal Credit Union in Las Cruces, N.M., the $20.6 billion PenFed Credit Union in Alexandria, Va; the $965 million FirstLight Federal Credit Union in El Paso, and the $9.3 billion Security Service Federal Credit Union in San Antonio.
The victimized banks included Springleaf Financial Services, OneMain Financial, Synchrony Financial, State Farm Bank, Barclays Bank, JP Morgan Chase, Santander Consumer USA, Citibank, Ally Financial, BMW Financial Services, Bank of the West, BBVA Compass and Discovery Financial Services.
