YOUNGSTOWN — A federal grand jury in Cleveland has returned a 20-count indictment charging three people with defrauding banks, and using Valley Walmart stores in their scheme.

U.S. Attorney Justin Herdman announced the indictment that charges John Lee Watkins, 31, of Stow; Valerie Marie Masongsong, 29, of Henderson, Nevada and Terrell Tomlin, 32, of Ogden, Utah with wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.

The defendants executed their scheme using Walmart locations in Liberty, Poland, Austintown, Stow, Streetsboro, Kent, Canton and elsewhere outside of the Northern District of Ohio. A total loss of more than $400,000 was incurred as a result of the alleged scheme, the government said.

According to court documents, the defendants are accused of using Walmart2Walmart, a money transfer service, to defraud banks and enrich themselves. Walmart2Walmart allows a customer to initiate a money transfer at one Walmart store to be picked up by someone at another Walmart store anywhere in the United States.

As part of their conspiracy, the defendants are alleged to have used either their real name of a false identity to initiate a Walmart2Walmart transfer using a bank card to another co-defendant, co-conspirator, or fictitious person.

The person initiating the transfer would then contact his or her bank, stating that the transfer was fraudulent and seek a refund for the transfer. The defendant or co-conspirators would then collect the transfer at the second Walmart location and withdraw the money from their bank account before the bank could complete an investigation into the fraudulent activity and reverse the charges, states the indictment.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathryn G. Andrachik.

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