DEARBORN MAN SENTENCED IN BANK FRAUD CASE

Harris James Barnett, a 42-year-old Dearborn man was sentenced today to 27 months imprisonment after his conviction on bank fraud charges, United States Attorney Stephen J. Murphy announced today.

Barnett was sentenced in U.S. District Court by Judge Marianne O. Battani, who imposed a sentence at the top of the federal sentencing guidelines. Barnett was also ordered to pay more than $80,000 in restitution to the victims.

Barnett pleaded guilty in November 2005 to bank fraud in connection with a credit card scheme. The scheme involved incurring charges on credit cards, submitting non-sufficient funds checks to reduce the credit card balances, and then incurring additional charges on the credit cards, according to documents filed with the court. Documents filed with the United States District court stated that credit card balances were left unpaid, and Barnett used false Social Security numbers to obtain the credit cards.

United States Attorney Murphy said, “Credit card fraud harms all of our citizens who work hard to pay their credit card bills. My office will aggressively prosecute those who commit fraud on our banking and credit systems.”

The investigation of this case was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Social Security Administration.