A federal grand jury in a Texarkana, Texas, federal court handed down a nine-count indictment Wednesday for a 66-year-old woman accused of stealing at least $100,000.
Tanya Sue Cooper allegedly used the identities of at least three people to withdraw large sums of cash, cash cashier’s checks and walk away with fat cashier’s checks from banks in Texarkana and Atlanta, Texas, and from a bank in Smith County, Texas, according to an indictment pending in the Texarkana Division of the Eastern District of Texas.
Counts one through six of Cooper’s indictment list incidents of bank fraud which allegedly occurred April 10, April 11, and July 13, 2015. Cooper allegedly made a fraudulent $15,000 cash withdrawal from a Wells Fargo in Atlanta, Texas, from someone’s account she shouldn’t have had access to and caused the same bank to issue a $19,750 cashier’s check from the same account April 11, 2015.
On the same day at a Wells Fargo on Summerhill Road in Texarkana, Cooper allegedly cashed a $19,750 cashier’s check on another victim’s account. On April 11, 2015, Cooper is accused of withdrawing $15,000 from the first victim’s account at a Wells Fargo on Richmond Road in Texarkana, Texas, and of causing the same bank to issue a $17,950 cashier’s check from the same victim’s account. Cooper allegedly forged the signature of a third victim at a Bank of America in Smith County and walked away with $15,000.
The last three counts of Cooper’s indictment accuse her of aggravated identity theft on April 10, 2015, and July 13, 2015. The government is seeking a $100,000 money judgment against Cooper which her indictment states represents the proceeds of her misdeeds.
Bank fraud is punishable by up to 30 years in a federal prison, a fine up to $1 million, or both.
The three counts of aggravated identity theft are punishable by a minimum of two years in federal prison which must be served consecutively to any other prison term. The identity theft counts also include the possibility of a fine up to $250,000.
“A person convicted of a violation of this section shall not be placed on probation,” the indictment states.
Cooper’s case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Robert Schroeder, III. Cooper has not yet appeared in court on the charges.
