A 24-year-old Long Beach man was sentenced yesterday to a weekend behind bars and 15 months of home detention for being an inside player in a fraud ring that pilfered more than a half-million dollars from Wells Fargo and its customers while he was an employee at the bank.
U.S. District Judge Fernando Olguin also ordered Garrick J. Davis-Looney to pay about $54,000 in restitution and serve three years under supervised release.
Davis-Looney was among eight defendants—including four bank employees—charged in two indictments returned two years ago by a federal grand jury.
He admitted to accessing the bank’s database to steal customers’ identifying information, including account numbers, dates of birth, and driver’s license and Social Security numbers.
The defendant told investigators he gave the information to Ronald Charles Reed, 70, of Inglewood, the ringleader of the scheme. Reed, also known as “Disco Ronnie,” was sentenced in January to 7 ½ years in prison.
Reed recruited several employees—including Davis-Looney—at various unidentified Wells Fargo branches and paid them to steal customer information including account and Social Security numbers. Reed then gave that information to “runners” who, using fake IDs, went to tellers and were able to withdraw more than $580,000 from 75 customer accounts.
Olguin said the defendant’s crimes were “an aberration in an otherwise law-abiding life,” adding that it was unlikely Davis-Looney would commit any other offenses in the future.
The weekend in jail would remind Davis-Looney what awaits him if he again breaks the law, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Vicki Chou.
The defendant pleaded guilty last year to felony counts of bank fraud and aggravated identity theft and agreed to cooperate with investigators.
Two other former Wells Fargo bankers, Jamal Hurley and Michael Hester, were previously sentenced to prison terms for their roles in the conspiracy.
City News Service contributed to this report.