Woman pleads guilty in case involving $4 million electronic theft from Lexington
A Texas woman who helped scam the city of Lexington out of nearly $4 million has pleaded guilty.
Shimea Maret McDonald pleaded guilty June 22 to one charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering and one charge of aggravated identity theft, according to a court record.
McDonald was indicted on a number of other charges, but those will be dismissed as part of her plea.
McDonald worked with a man named Nana Kwabena Amuah to open bank accounts using identities a stolen from other people and set up shell companies to receive money from “a variety of victims,” her plea agreement said.
Authorities found more than 40 fake identity cards when they searched McDonald’s house, according to her plea agreement.
In 2022, others involved in the conspiracy impersonated a non-profit organization that had business with the city of Lexington and, using email, got city officials to send payments to the non-profit to a new bank account McDonald had set up using stolen identity information.
Some people involved in the conspiracy were outside the U.S., according to court documents.
The city sent large wire transfers to the account in August 2022, according to court documents, ultimately sending $3.9 million.
The money was meant to go to the Community Action Council for rent assistance and transitional housing, the city said.
Truist Bank and the city recovered all the money, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Amuah, a native of Ghana, operated out of New York, New Jersey, Florida, Texas and elsewhere and helped McDonald get fake identity cards, according to a court document.
When money from a victim was deposited into one of the shell companies, Amuah had McDonald wire or deliver money to him, and then he would get it to others involved in the conspiracy after taking his cut, the document said.
Amuah is scheduled to plead guilty Thursday to conspiracy to commit money laundering.
That charge has a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
