A man from Atlanta, Georgia, has been sentenced to 57 months in prison for defrauding banks in Montana by using local homeless individuals to forge checks. Stanford Wilvin Lightfoot, 33, was part of a larger fraud ring that targeted banks in Montana, Maine, and Missouri. Lightfoot and his coconspirators recruited homeless individuals with valid ID cards and provided them with fraudulent checks from real accounts, which were forged with signatures of real people. The homeless individuals would attempt to cash the checks and, if successful, would give the money to Lightfoot and his accomplices. If caught by police, the homeless individuals would be left to take the blame.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office prosecuted the case, with involvement from the FBI, Livingston Police Department, Belgrade Police Department, and Bozeman Police Department. Lightfoot pleaded guilty to bank fraud and aggravated identity theft in November 2024 and was ordered to pay $161,401.17 in restitution in addition to serving prison time and supervised release.
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