Tacoma woman sentenced in $345K bank fraud scheme targeting credit union accounts

A Tacoma woman was sentenced to 30 months in prison on Thursday for a bank fraud scheme in which she stole more than $345,000 from credit union accounts.

Aneicia Ford, 32, used her employment with the victim credit union to steal customers’ account information and distribute it to conspirators to steal funds, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced.

“What you did was serious. Your employer trusted you with access to customers’ more personal information. Real people suffered real harm from the actions that you took,” U.S. District Judge Jamal N. Whitehead said at the sentencing hearing.

Tacoma woman starts bank fraud scheme weeks after starting job

Within weeks of starting with her employer, Ford began to steal account information from approximately 23 victims between May and August 2022.

Ford worked remotely from home as a contact center employee who would assist customers with account issues. In her role, she was allowed access to personal identification information of customers with the credit union.

The DOJ noted Ford’s role in the conspiracy was simple, although she was able to independently prospect victims’ accounts to ensure it would be a viable target for the conspirators of the scheme. Ford had access to account information, including available funds, and the age or profession of a victim.

Ford’s first offense occurred days after she completed the required training to be a customer service representative for the credit union.

The personal identity information stolen by Ford was then distributed to another conspirator, codefendant, Dangelo Roberts, 23, who used the information to access and steal from customers’ accounts along with other conspirators.

Roberts provided the stolen account information to other conspirators, who used false IDs to obtain debit cards and make withdrawals from the victims’ accounts, oftentimes from the victim’s credit union’s branches.

The conspirators obtained an increase to the ATM’s withdrawal limits and obtained as much as $25,000 in cash. The conspirators also spent victims’ funds by ordering cashier’s checks or purchasing postal money orders that were made payable to other conspirators and associates.

Illegal access was used to transfer the money across accounts and check balances on the accounts.

In total, the scheme stole approximately $345,014 from various accounts at the victim credit union. The DOJ noted that the victim credit union suffered the loss of funds by paying back all of the affected account holders.

Ford pleaded guilty to the charges on May 20, 2025. Roberts was also sentenced last month to three years in prison.

“Ford knowingly joined in the conspiracy shortly after starting a new job— following training instructing her not to do precisely what she did—and she contributed to the conspiracy for months,” Prosecutors wrote to the court. “The credit union’s electronic logs demonstrate that Ford accessed the victims’ accounts on multiple occasions throughout the course of her employment (and not, for instance, all 23 accounts at once). The account takeovers in this case could not have occurred without the personally identifying information she stole.”

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