An inmate who served in the military stole thousands from fellow veterans who were “seriously” ill and hospitalized, federal prosecutors said.
Darryl Lamont Young, 46, who is in the King County Jail on “unrelated charges,” and his accomplice, Aqeelah Ngiesha Williams, 27, targeted more than 60 veterans in a scheme to steal from their bank accounts, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington.
A federal grand jury indicted Young and Williams for a conspiracy to commit wire fraud, six counts of wire fraud and six counts of aggravated identity theft, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced in an Oct. 4 news release.
Williams was arrested Oct. 4, according to prosecutors.
Information regarding Young’s legal representation wasn’t listed in court records as of Oct. 7. An attorney representing Williams didn’t immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment Oct. 7.
While Young was jailed at a few Washington State Department of Corrections facilities between December 2021 and April 2023, he called multiple veteran’s medical centers to learn about patients in intensive care units, prosecutors said.
Young posed as a Veterans Affairs employee during the calls, which he first made to veteran’s facilities, according to prosecutors.
Over the phone, Young would ask to be transferred to a specific medical center “so that the medical facility would not know that the call was from an inmate,” prosecutors said.
When he spoke with a medical facility, Young pretended to need information about patients and learned their phone numbers and emergency contacts, according to prosecutors.
Then Young would call Williams, who is accused of setting up three-way calls to veterans or relatives listed as their contacts, prosecutors said.
In 2022, Young and Williams made calls to VA medical centers in Tampa and Bay Pines, Florida, and to a center in Reno, Nevada, the indictment shows.
While speaking with a veteran or their family member, Young often said that he needed the veteran’s personal and banking information to deposit “stimulus payments” into their accounts, according to the indictment. However, there were no stimulus payments to be deposited, prosecutors said.
Young and Williams used veterans’ account information to steal from their bank accounts and transfer money to themselves, prosecutors said.
Young and Williams tried to make 130 fraudulent bank transactions from veterans’ accounts and stole more than $8,000, according to prosecutors.
“The conduct in this case is truly shocking — calling medical facilities and seriously ill veterans under the pretense of being a VA employee trying to provide the ill veteran with financial benefits,” U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman said in a statement.
“While they did not get a huge amount of money with this scheme, the harm they caused to those already suffering a health crisis, is deserving of federal prosecution,” Gorman added.
Bench warrants were issued for Young and Williams on Oct. 2, court records show.
Williams pleaded not guilty in court on Oct. 4, according to prosecutors.
If Young and Williams are convicted of a conspiracy to commit wire fraud or any of the wire fraud counts, they will be ordered to forfeit the money they stole, the indictment says.
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