A Texan individual, who confessed to the act of appropriating over $100,000 from banking establishments in Montana as a member of an organized syndicate that employed counterfeit checks and stolen identities to deceive banks, has been given a sentence of four years in prison. Subsequently, they will be subjected to five years of supervised release and have been ordered by U.S. Attorney Jesse Laslovich to provide restitution amounting to $103,149.
Shanetwann Clayton Waldon, a 46-year-old resident of Dallas, Texas, pleaded guilty in August 2023 to charges of bank fraud and aggravated identity theft.
According to court documents, the government claimed that Waldon, along with several accomplices, traveled from Texas to Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming with the intention of cashing fraudulent checks at small financial institutions. Waldon specifically targeted rural areas because they were considered more “country” and had a slower banking process compared to Texas. Between the years 2022 and 2023, Waldon made at least four trips to Montana and managed to steal thousands of dollars on 10 different occasions by entering new banks. To avoid being caught by law enforcement, Waldon used a fake identity and forged documents to create debts under other people’s names. In Montana, the banks in Hamilton, Bozeman, Billings, and Missoula were among Waldon’s targets. Even after his initial co-defendants were arrested, Waldon continued with the scheme for several months. In total, Waldon and his co-defendants successfully stole $141,822 from 30 bank branches across three states. As for Waldon himself, he owes a total of $103,149 to six Montana banks, including First Interstate Bank, TrailWest Bank, First Security Bank, Opportunity Bank of Montana, Farmers State Bank, and Western Security Bank.