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A Philadelphia law enforcement officer will be sentenced in March after admitting to submitting fraudulent loans and credit applications causing $145,000 in losses to seven credit unions and a bank.
Darryl T. Wells, 34, pleaded guilty to one felony count of bank fraud in November, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office in Philadelphia.
From December 2018 to January 2019, while employed as a deputy sheriff officer for the city of Philadelphia, Wells admitted to FBI investigators that he inflated his income on multiple loan applications and created fake pay stubs that showed significantly higher income earnings than his actual salary.
For example, on Jan. 9, 2019, Wells submitted a fraudulent loan application to the $861 million Sun East Federal Credit Union in Aston, Pa., for a $15,000 personal loan. Prosecutors stated in Wells’ plea agreement that the application included a falsely inflated gross monthly income and forged pay stubs claiming he earned $270,949 from the Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office in 2018 — more than double his actual earnings that year.
“Upon receipt, Mr. Wells withdrew and spent the entire amount of the loan, including by writing checks to friends and romantic partners, making ATM cash withdrawals, and purchasing clothing in New York,” prosecutors wrote in court documents. “No amounts were repaid to Sun East Federal Credit Union.”
Before applying for that loan, Wells submitted a personal loan application with Sun East on Dec. 12, 2018. Throughout December, he also applied for credit cards with the $3.4 billion Trumark Financial Credit Union in Fort Washington, Pa., the $5.1 billion American Heritage Credit Union in Philadelphia, the $8.9 billion PSECU in Harrisburg and Synchrony Bank. He also submitted for a line of credit with Trumark Financial. In addition, he signed a credit card application with the $6.5 billion Citadel Federal Credit Union in Exton and applied for a line of credit with the $1.8 billion Philadelphia Federal Credit Union, prosecutors said.
Peter Strozniak can be reached at peter.strozniak@arc-network.com.
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