| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 30, 2008 WWW.USDOJ.GOV/USAO/CAN |
SAN FRANCISCO – United States Attorney Joseph P. Russoniello and United States Postal Inspector in Charge Sally Diaz announced that Mark Allen Davis was sentenced yesterday by United States District Court Judge Jeffrey S. White to 81 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for charges related to a fraudulent scheme in which Davis illegally withdrew money from his victims’ bank accounts without their permission.
Davis, formerly of Tiburon, California, pleaded guilty on September 13, 2007, to charges of committing mail fraud, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft. According to the plea agreement in the case, Davis operated a scheme in which he placed newspaper advertisements concerning real properties that had been foreclosed upon and that were available for purchase. These advertisements listed a toll-free telephone number. When potential customers called the toll-free telephone number, Davis asked them to provide information about their bank accounts, including account and routing numbers, which he falsely told them he needed in order to verify their identities. Davis then used this bank account information without the accountholders’ permission or consent to prepare bank drafts that he deposited into bank accounts he controlled. By doing so, he withdrew funds from the accountholders’ bank accounts and transferred them for his own use.
Davis’s scheme victimized more than 800 individuals who suffered unauthorized withdrawals from their bank accounts. Also victimized were more than 100 newspapers (which were not paid for the advertisements Davis placed about the foreclosed properties) and numerous banks. At yesterday’s sentencing, Judge White found that the total dollar loss to the victims exceeded $400,000. He ordered Davis to pay restitution of $328,320.71 to specific, identified victims.
Drew Caputo is the assistant United States attorney who prosecuted the case with the assistance of Karem Alvarez, Mia Morgan, and Rawaty Yim. The investigation of the case was conducted by the United States Postal Inspection Service.
Further Information:
Case #: CR 07-0270 JSW
A copy of this press release may be found on the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s website at www.usdoj.gov/usao/can.
Electronic court filings and further procedural and docket information are available at https://ecf.cand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.
Judges’ calendars with schedules for upcoming court hearings can be viewed on the court’s website at www.cand.uscourts.gov.
All press inquiries to the U.S. Attorney’s Office should be directed to Joshua Eaton at (415) 436-6958 or by email at Josh.Eaton@usdoj.gov.