Texas Man Sentenced for Stealing from Bank Accounts

MINNEAPOLIS—Yesterday in federal court, a 46-year-old Houston, Texas man was sentenced for stealing funds from bank accounts at Anchor Bank in Minnesota. On April 11, 2012, United States District Court Judge Patrick J. Schiltz sentenced Henry Joseph Williams to 14 months in prison on one count of wire fraud. Williams was indicted on July 19, 2011 and pleaded guilty on October 20, 2011.

Williams admitted that from May through November of 2010, he diverted approximately $29,000 from the bank by misleading it into paying off his personal debts through the use of Automated Clearing House (ACH) transactions. An ACH transaction deducts funds from one account and electronically sends those funds to another account in the form of a bank check. In addition, Williams gained access to the personal information of a customer at Anchor Bank in Apple Valley and used that information to lead the bank into making unauthorized transfers to Williams’ line of credit at Macy’s Inc. in Houston.

This case was the result of an investigation by the Minnesota Cyber Crimes Task Force, which is sponsored by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Secret Service. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew R. Winter.