Mason sentenced in bank fraud case

COEUR d’ALENE — A Sandpoint woman was ordered Monday to serve four years in prison for an identity theft and bank fraud scheme that netted $37,790 in ill-gotten gains, U.S. Attorney Wendy Olson has announced.

Michelle Ann Mason, 27, was also ordered to make full restitution and will be subject to five years of supervised released after she serves 48 months in a federal lockup. Mason pleaded guilty to identity theft last February.

An accomplice in the scheme, Charles Earl Baker, a 32-year-old from Tucson, Ariz., was sentenced to eight months in prison and ordered to pay $22,626, according to the terms of U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge’s sentence. Baker pled in March.

Lodge also ordered both defendants to perform 100 hours of community service.

Mason was accused of organizing and leading a group that stole mail in an around Oldtown and other locations. Mason, federal prosecutors said, directed her co-conspirators to open bank accounts in order to obtain cash from Bank of America, Wells Fargo Bank, J.P. Morgan Chase and Spokane Teachers Credit Union.

Mason took over bank accounts that her co-conspirators opened and deposited counterfeit, altered and/or forged checks that were stolen from the mail into the compromised accounts and to withdraw cash from ATMs. She also used checks and ATM cards from the compromised accounts to purchase merchandise and pay bills.

Baker admitted in February that he was aware of Mason’s criminal enterprise and eventually became involved in the conspiracy and intended to commit bank fraud.

The victims included banks, merchants and the victims of the mail thefts.

The case was investigated by the Sandpoint Police Department, Bonner and Kootenai county sheriff’s offices, Washington’s Pend Oreille County Sheriff’s Office, the U.S. Secret Service and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.