Granite City man pleads guilty to defrauding bank of $157,000. How did he do it?

A Granite City man on Tuesday pleaded guilty in a Missouri federal court to charges he schemed to defraud Commerce Bank of more than $150,000.

Clarence Wigfall Jr., 32, admitted that beginning in March of 2018, he used social media to solicit account holders’ debit cards and account information in exchange for cash.

He then deposited worthless checks into their accounts using automated teller machines and withdrew the money before the bank realized that the checks had been written to frozen, blocked or closed accounts, according to the charges filed against him in the Eastern District of Missouri.

Some of the checks also had forged signatures, court records say. At least ten of the checking account holders did not authorize Wigfall to use their information in his scheme.

Hundreds of worthless checks were deposited into at least 55 separate accounts, causing the bank a loss of at least $157,256.92, the federal complaint states.

Wigfall is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 8. According to federal sentencing guidelines#, he could face up to 30 years in prison.

This story was originally published August 2, 2022 at 1:46 PM.