POLK COUNTY, Fla. \u2013 On Wednesday, investigators revealed that 19 Florida residents have now pleaded guilty in a wide-ranging bank fraud conspiracy.<\/p>\n
In a release, the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office announced that the FBI and the Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Office began investigating a violent Central Florida street gang known as the \u201cTrap Boys\u201d back in 2023.<\/p>\n
Per investigators, the investigation \u2014 and subsequent arrests \u2014 hinged on several \u201cretaliatory shootings\u201d between the Trap Boys and other violent street gangs.<\/p>\n
But during these arrests, detectives said they found that gang members possessed large numbers of checks, debit cards, financial statements, and ID cards in the names of third parties.<\/p>\n
\u201cFurther investigation of these materials revealed that from at least July 2021, and continuing through November 2023, a group of individuals had engaged in a conspiracy to defraud banks, credit unions, individual persons, and various businesses throughout Florida, including Winter Haven, Auburndale, Riverview, Kissimmee, Lakeland, Tampa, and Miami,\u201d the release reads.<\/p>\n
HOW THE CONSPIRACY WORKED<\/p>\n
Investigators said the co-conspirators stole checks from people and businesses as part of the conspiracy.<\/p>\n
Then, the co-conspirators reportedly used check-writing software to create fake checks, changing the banks, businesses and amounts on the stolen checks.<\/p>\n
From there, detectives said the suspects were able to use automated systems and online databases to learn the banking information of various businesses.<\/p>\n
\u201cMembers of the conspiracy then recruited accomplices, who provided members of this conspiracy with their own bank account numbers, Social Security numbers, debit cards, and their own individual bank account log credentials and passwords,\u201d the release continues. \u201cThe co-conspirators then deposited the fraudulently created checks at dozens of banks and credit unions throughout the Middle District of Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n
IMPACTS OF THE SCHEME<\/p>\n
Investigators said that around 26 banks and over 200 victims were defrauded over the course of the conspiracy. <\/p>\n
These groups included insurance companies, law firms, construction companies, tile companies, auto shop businesses, public school districts, colleges, and state agencies.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the 19 co-conspirators identified on Wednesday are as follows:<\/p>\n
Qornelious Campbell, 33 (Winter Haven)<\/p>\n
Kenneth Cole II, 27 (Winter Haven)<\/p>\n
Kenisha Coffer, 27 (Minneola)<\/p>\n
D\u2019Andranika Crews, 22 (Lakeland)<\/p>\n
Ebony Fields, 28 (Winter Haven)<\/p>\n
Victoria Ferrer, 24 (Lakeland)<\/p>\n
Aaliyah Gotay-Woods, 25 (Bartow)<\/p>\n
Bre-asia Harris, 28 (Winter Haven)<\/p>\n
Jaun Hillman, 53 (Winter Haven)<\/p>\n
Keith Honors, Jr., 41 (Lakeland)<\/p>\n
Kendrick Iles, 22 (Plant City)<\/p>\n
Arkuria Lewis, 24 (Lakeland)<\/p>\n
Deven Little, 30 (Lakeland)<\/p>\n
Josie Lopez, 31 (Haines City)<\/p>\n
Clarissa Morris, 26 (Lakeland)<\/p>\n
Tamiria Perry, 29 (Winter Haven)<\/p>\n
Tamaries Richardson, 32 (Bartow)<\/p>\n
Kalei Spicer, 24 (Live Oak)<\/p>\n
Tyler Jacob, 26 (Winter Haven)<\/p>\n
All of them pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud. Jacob also pleaded guilty to aggravated identity theft, witness tampering, and destruction of evidence.<\/p>\n
Breaking News Alerts<\/p>\n
Get breaking news alerts delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"POLK COUNTY, Fla. \u2013 On Wednesday, investigators revealed that 19 Florida residents have now pleaded guilty in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8118,558,265,28,30,29,27941,2174,7154,11482,2159,10784,1911,5854,2546,21956],"class_list":["post-341878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-bartow","tag-business","tag-crime","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-haines-city","tag-lake-county","tag-lakeland","tag-minneola","tag-money","tag-plant-city","tag-polk-county","tag-scams","tag-strange-florida","tag-winter-haven"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}