An inmate at a northwest Indiana jail and two accomplices used stolen credit card numbers to pay other inmates’ bonds to get them out of jail, according to prosecutors.
Gregory Brown, 36, was an inmate at the LaPorte County Jail in LaPorte between April and July, and offered to secure other inmates’ release by paying their bonds if they would repay him, according to the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Indiana.
Shakyia Bunch, 30, who worked at an Illinois hotel, would steal credit card numbers from guests who provided the information to book rooms, according to prosecutors. She then provided the stolen credit card numbers to 31-year-old Jeneva Sutton.
Bunch and Sutton then made wire transfers online using the stolen credit card numbers to pay inmates’ bail, prosecutors said. A total of eight wire transactions were made using four different account holders’ credit card information.
Sutton was to be paid with money or property from the inmates who were released, or their associates, prosecutors said.
Through the scheme and with the stolen credit cards numbers, they also bought a Chrysler 300, prosecutors said.
Brown and Bunch were each charged with 13 counts of wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and unauthorized access device fraud, according to prosecutors. Sutton was charged with seven counts of wire fraud, two counts of aggravated identity theft and one count of unauthorized access device fraud.