A Texas couple buying a house wired $194,000 to a MS Coast bank account. It was a scam.
The federal government is seeking a court order for the forfeiture of about $95,000 held in a bank account in Pascagoula.
The money held at Merchants & Marine Bank is believed to be the proceeds of an online financial fraud scheme where business email accounts were compromised and victims were told to send money to accounts a scammer controlled.
Court papers say the bank account belongs to Susan Becker of D’Iberville, who was indicted last year on wire fraud charges.
Federal authorities allege Becker worked with others to compromise the emails of title closing companies and supplied victims with “false and misleading” instructions on where to wire funds meant for mortgage fees. Becker allegedly then withdrew the funds, authorities said, and sent the money to the people she was working with.
In court documents, FBI agent Stephen Fortunato details what happened with the $95,000 in question.
In September 2020, a couple from Colleyville, Texas, were scheduled to close on their new home. They received an email from Freedom Title — the company handling their real estate closing — on Aug. 31, 2020, with accurate instructions on where to send the closing payment. A day later, the couple received a second email containing false wiring instructions.
This second email was sent from an email account that appeared to match the legitimate title company. The false wiring instructions listed the recipient as Becker and the account at Merchants & Marine Bank.
Becker opened the account on Aug. 31, the same day the valid email was sent.
On Sept. 1, 2020, Becker received a wire transfer for $194,380.16.
On Sept. 2, 2020, Becker allegedly sent a $50,000 wire transfer to a Silvergate bank account with a beneficiary named “Bitflyer.” On the same day, Becker purchased a $70,000 cashier’s check made payable to herself and made a $30,000 cash withdrawal.
The Texas couple learned of the fraud when they were contacted by the title company asking about the payment. The couple notified Merchants & Marine Bank, which froze the remaining $44,395.16 and placed a stop payment on the cashier’s check. The bank was able to recover $50,930.13 from the cashier’s check, totaling a recovery of $95,325.29.
In her indictment, federal authorities allege to know of at least seven other cases involving Becker, mortgages and wire fraud.
A judge has not decided yet whether the government can seize the funds at Merchants & Marine Bank, with the intent of getting it back to the Texas couple. Meanwhile, Becker is scheduled for trial in April in U.S. District Court in Gulfport on the wire fraud charges.
This story was originally published March 3, 2023 at 6:30 AM.