osceola woman sentenced for bank fraud conspiracy,
wire fraud, ID theft
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – David M. Ketchmark, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that an Osceola, Mo., woman was sentenced in federal court today for her role in a bank fraud conspiracy, as well as wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
Lindsey Scott, 23, of Osceola, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Richard E. Dorr to three years and six months in federal prison without parole.
Scott and co-defendant David M. Riili, 33, of Osceola, pleaded guilty in April 2012. Scott and Riili admitted that they stole checks, credit cards and other mail from business and residential mailboxes in southwest Missouri. They altered and forged the stolen checks by adding the names of other individuals to the payee lines of the stolen checks. They cashed the checks or deposited them into Riili’s bank account. The amount of those checks in the scheme, which lasted from Sept. 13 to Nov. 22, 2011, totaled $44,716.
Scott and Riili also admitted that they stole credit cards from the mail and used some of them to make unauthorized purchases at businesses in the Springfield area.
Riili was sentenced on July 30, 2012, to four years and nine months in federal prison without parole. Riili’s federal sentence was ordered to run consecutively to five felony sentences imposed by the state of Missouri for unrelated conduct.
According to court documents, they were arrested after Missouri State Highway Patrol troopers responded to a one-vehicle accident on Missouri Highway 76, near Indian Point Road in Stone County on Sept. 16, 2011. Riili’s vehicle had left the roadway and slid into the woods, where it struck a tree. Riili and Scott, a passenger, were transported by ambulance.
A state trooper followed trails of blood from the vehicle into the woods. One of the blood trails led to a pile of leaves. The officer dug through the leaves and discovered an envelope full of checks that were made out to different businesses. The trooper also found a large trash bag that contained stolen mail from different areas throughout southwest Missouri.
This case was prosecuted by Supervisory Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael S. Oliver and Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Carney. It was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
