FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – David Clay Fowlkes, first assistant United States attorney for the Western District of Arkansas announced that, Jonathan Terry, age 35, was sentenced Tuesday to 120 months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release on one count of money laundering. The Honorable Judge Timothy L. Brooks presided over the sentencing hearing in the United States District Court in Fayetteville.
Beginning in July of 2019, Terry began fraudulently obtaining the banking and personally identifying information of individuals throughout the Fayetteville Division of the Western District of Arkansas through various means, primarily from stealing mail from unattended mailboxes. After he obtained that information, Terry opened financial accounts at various financial institutions, to include TD Ameritrade and Fidelity, and funded those accounts with stolen checks. Terry also attempted to take advantage of the “pending” status of large deposits to transfer funds amongst the various accounts he opened. In all, the court found Terry attempted $2,256,727.50 in transactions on those fraudulent accounts, though he and his coconspirators only obtained approximately $4,000 in the overall scheme. The court found that Terry was an “organizer or leader” of the scheme, that he victimized over 10 individuals, and that he obstructed justice during the investigation.
Terry was indicted by a federal grand jury in March of 2020 and entered a guilty plea in June of 2020.
This case was investigated by the Madison County Sheriff’s Office, the Fayetteville Police Department, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, the Arkansas State Police, IRS, the FBI and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA). Assistant United States Attorney Ben Wulff prosecuted the case for the Western District of Arkansas.
WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady® NSI