Source: Office of United States Attorneys
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – A Chicago, Il., woman pleaded guilty in federal court today for her role in a wire fraud conspiracy that targeted United States Service men and women who had recently joined the military.
Jetauwn T. Griffin, 31, waived her right to a grand jury and pleaded guilty before U.S. Chief Magistrate Judge Willie Epps, Jr., to a federal information charging her with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Griffin conspired with others that sought to defraud United States military service men and women through the use of social media.
According to the plea agreement, Griffin conspired with others that employed a scheme to defraud United States military service men and women. Service members who had recently joined the United States military were contacted through various social media platforms. Upon communicating with each military member, a person within the conspiracy would use the information obtained from the social media platform and then contact the service member claiming to be a senior military official. As a senior military member, they would tell each service member that they were receiving the wrong salary, and they were owed more money than they were being paid. The perpetrators of the scheme who advise the service member that they needed to return their prior pay using a cash application and then they would receive the higher pay once the other money was returned. If a service member followed these instructions, the members of this scheme would take the monies transferred and would never return any monies to the victim. Griffin conspired with others in this scheme by taking the cash application transfers and conducted financial transactions that transferred the victim’s money to accounts that were accessed by all members of the scheme.
Under federal statutes, Griffin is subject to a sentence of up to 20 years in federal prison without parole. The maximum statutory sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes, as the sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the court based on the advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Carney. It was investigated by the Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.