SACRAMENTO - A woman who pleaded guilty to bank fraud and conspiracy but failed to show up for sentencing two and a half years ago has been captured in Fairfield.
According to court records, 34-year-old Niesha Nicole Jackson was a member of a bank fraud scheme that gleaned between $1 million and $2 million illegally from 37 banks in 2007 and 2008.
The operation worked like this: Sacramento-based masterminds sent individuals to banks in nine different states to use pre-paid credit cards for cash advances. Court documents stated the prepaid cards in reality only had small amounts of money available on them but bank tellers didn't know that. The individuals with the cards would have the tellers call toll-free numbers controlled by Jackson or another co-conspirator. Jackson would inform the teller there were thousands of dollars available on the card and give the teller instructions on using the card terminal to make the transaction for the cash advance.
The individuals would keep a percentage of the cash advance and the remainder would go to the Sacramento masterminds, court documents showed.
Jackson was indicted on one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and one count of bank fraud. Horwood said Jackson pleaded guilty to the charges in March 2010, but did not appear for sentencing in October 2011.
A U.S. Marshal's task force including state and local agencies arrested Jackson at a Fairfield hotel. When authorities caught up to Jackson, the motion for detention noted she had six cellphones, a bank card in someone else's name and a California driver's license in another person's name in her possession. It also stated she had business cards and a t-shirt referring to "Bank-robbing Babe," the moniker the television program American Greed pinned on her when it profiled the case in 2012.
Jackson was scheduled to appear in Sacramento federal court Monday afternoon.
