7th defendant pleads not guilty in Nigerian scam

GULFPORT -- The final defendant in a Nigerian scam case has pleaded not guilty to charges alleging she also laundered money and helped defraud victims in South Mississippi and elsewhere.

Michele Gayle Fee, of Manteca, Calif., is the last of seven persons arraigned in a probe by Homeland Security Investigations in Gulfport.

An indictment filed in U.S. District Court accuses Fee and the others of involvement in complex financial-fraud schemes including work-at-home and mystery-shopper scams and the purchase of high-dollar items with stolen identities and fake credit cards. The merchandise allegedly was reshipped to overseas countries and sold for a profit.

Fee pleaded not guilty Nov. 30 to charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States, money laundering and attempt and conspiracy to commit fraud. She was released on a $25,000 bond.

The others face the same charges. Some face additional charges of mail fraud and wire fraud.

They are set for trial on a court calendar that starts Feb. 1.

The indictment accuses Fee of obtaining counterfeit identification documents, using a fake ID in wire transfers of more than $55,000 and receiving 550 checks.

HSI agents have said they seized millions of dollars in counterfeit checks, including $3.1 million in bogus checks from a Hancock County woman's home.

Others charged are Gary Melvin Barnard and Shawn Ann White, also of Manteca; Funso Hassan of Nigeria; Ann Louise Franzen of Kiln, Anthony Shane Jeffers of Maryville, Tenn.; and Tanya Lynn Thomas of Turlock, Calif.

The conspiracy ran about four years, from Aug. 13, 2011, through June 3, the indictment says.

This story was originally published December 7, 2015 at 5:33 PM with the headline "7th defendant pleads not guilty in Nigerian scam ."