International Fraud Ring Thwarted in Wis.

Feb. 12--The call came into the Eau Claire Police Department at 3:24 on a Wednesday afternoon about 15 months ago.

It originated from the Associated Bank branch at 220 Water St. and involved an account showing evidence of suspicious activity.

Officer Garrett Lewis arrived a few minutes later and was introduced to a woman who had tried to withdraw $22,000 from the account. She indicated her name was Jacqueline Brough and presented a New Hampshire driver's license to back up her claim.

When further investigation revealed that wasn't her real name, the woman, Angela K. Grigsby, now 49, of Minneapolis, was arrested for obstructing an officer, said Deputy Chief Jerry Staniszewski.

But little did Eau Claire police know at the time that this seemingly straightforward fake ID case would end up being one of the linchpins in solving a massive fraud case that stretched from California to New York to West Africa.

The U.S. attorney's office in Minnesota maintains that the case, which went to trial last week in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, involved stealing the identities of more than 8,000 individuals worldwide and defrauding some of the nation's largest financial institutions out of more than $10 million.

Prosecutors have alleged that the case, dubbed "Operation Starburst," revolves around a Minnesota-based conspiracy ring with up to 200 members nationwide, even including some Twin Cities bank employees.

Lewis testified about Grigsby's arrest Thursday during the Minneapolis trial, which is expected to last at least two weeks and involves four defendants who maintain their innocence.

The Star-Tribune of Minneapolis reported last week that, to date, 22 of the 29 people publicly charged in the conspiracy have pleaded guilty in Minnesota, including Charles Tubman Dwamina, who is reportedly a nephew of Liberian presidential candidate Winston Tubman. Three co-defendants remain fugitives.

Good timing

A key break in the case came when -- reportedly just minutes before Grigsby entered the Water Street branch -- Associated Bank flagged what it suspected might be a fraudulent account, prompting tellers to reject the transaction and call police. It later was learned the account was propped up with money from a stolen check valued at more than $100,000, and Grigsby had a receipt in her possession for a $27,000 withdrawal from the account earlier in the day before she attempted the ill-fated Eau Claire withdrawal, Staniszewski said.

The kind of account flagging that led to Grigsby's apprehension is not uncommon as financial institutions strive to defeat creative and often high-tech schemes in which criminals try to get their hands on money that doesn't belong to them.

Associated Bank, the nation's 48th largest bank, flags questionable accounts about two or three dozen times a day, immediately putting tellers at all 295 of its branches on notice that something may be fishy about those accounts, said Dave Martens, corporate security officer with the company.

Grigsby, who helped investigators make connections in the fraud ring, pleaded guilty in January 2011 to one count of bank fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. She admitted in her plea agreement that from Oct. 15 through Nov. 3, 2010 -- the date of her Eau Claire arrest -- she created a bank account using a stolen identity, deposited a fraudulent check for $107,019 and later withdrew $57,000. She faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in federal prison on the bank fraud charge and a minimum of two years on the identity theft charge.

Once the unarmed Grigsby was taken into custody, she was transported to the Eau Claire police station and interviewed, at which point officers began to realize the incident might involve more than one person using a fake name to steal some money. Police also downloaded information from her cellphone that linked her to one of the participants in the larger bank fraud conspiracy, Staniszewski said.

Familiar name

What happened next is an example of why the local, regional and national law enforcement information sharing systems can be so important, Staniszewski said.

After the Grigsby interview, Eau Claire police sent out an electronic crime alert detailing the suspect and the alleged fraud to a system organized by the Minnesota Crime Alert Network.

The breakthrough came when a U.S. Secret Service agent assigned to the Minnesota Financial Crimes Task Force recognized the name and knew she was connected to the larger bank fraud investigation. The task force, which is conducting the investigation, comprises many major national and state agencies, including the Secret Service and the Internal Revenue Service.

"That's how the Secret Service found out she was in custody," Staniszewski said. "At the time we sent the alert, we didn't realize how big this thing was going to get."

While Eau Claire police aren't privy to Grigsby's exact role in the global conspiracy, Staniszewski said he understands she was a "pretty important piece."

"Due to the nature of the crime and the rate at which new scams are developed by criminals, information sharing is crucial among investigators of white collar crime," Staniszewski said.

Such sharing has become an everyday occurrence for today's law enforcement agencies.

Working together

Clay Wanta, one of two Eau Claire police detectives assigned full time to white collar crime cases, said he regularly sends out such crime alerts -- mostly in the form of secure emails -- and receives about 10 to 20 per day. The alerts can include case details, photos or videos of suspects and information about property, vehicles or people being sought.

In addition to helping other agencies solve crimes, the alerts often help Eau Claire police connect the dots in local cases.

"It's great when you send out an alert and then start getting calls with all sorts of additional information," Wanta said.

In recent years, he recalled one case in which East Coast police called to identify suspects caught on video trying to commit credit card fraud in Eau Claire and another in which a New York cop provided video of a suspect who had committed similar financial crimes in both states.

"These information sharing networks have been a great tool," Wanta said.

The stakes from financial crimes are higher than most local residents realize, Wanta said, estimating he personally works on Eau Claire fraud cases totaling about $3 million every year and his partner handles a comparable caseload.

"There's nothing occurring anywhere in the country financial crimes-wise that isn't happening right here," he said.

Lindquist can be reached at 715-833-9209, 800-236-7077 or [email protected].