LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — A federal grand jury has indicted a Houston woman for allegedly attempting to defraud the City of Lexington out of millions of dollars.
24-year-old Shimea McDonald has been indicted with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, one count of providing fraudulent statements to a federally insured financial institution, and three counts of identity theft, according to a news release from the United States Attorney's Office.
Authorities say McDonald "conspired with others to engage in business email compromise scams." They allege the group impersonated vendors in emails and requested wire payments to a new bank account.
According to the indictment, in August 2022, the conspirators impersonated a nonprofit that had business with the City of Lexington over email and convinced an employee to wire funds owed to the nonprofit to a bank account at Truist Bank. The City then wired a total of $3,905,837.05.
Truist Bank and the City of Lexington recovered all the stolen funds about a week later.
The investigation was conducted by the FBI and Lexington police.
McDonald will appear in court on Tuesday, February 7 at 10:00 a.m. She faces up to 20 years on the count of wire fraud; she faces up to 30 years for the count of bank fraud; she faces up to two years, to run consecutively on each count of aggravated identity theft; and she faces judgments for restitution and forfeiture of the property attained through the fraud.
