A District man was sentenced Wednesday to more than three years in prison for his role in a conspiracy that stole $1.4 million from a Baltimore Housing Authority bank account, officials said.
Keith Eugene Daughtry, 50, was sentenced in federal court in Baltimore, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He pleaded guilty to bank fraud conspiracy in February and is ordered to forfeit and pay restitution of $1,399,700.
In pleading guilty, Daughtry admitted to providing his identity for the scheme. In May 2010, a co-conspirator named William Darden obtained a fake driver’s license in Daughtry’s name that had Darden’s photograph, according to court documents.
Darden then used the license to open a bank account for an entity called Keith Daughtry Contracting LLC, and Daughtry’s conspirators transferred a substantial amount of money from a BHA bank account into the Daughtry LLC account. The funds were illegally diverted because Daughtry LLC never performed services for the BHA that required payment, and the conspirators were responsible for transferring at least $1,399,700 between July and September 2010, according to court documents.
The conspirators drained the funds from the Daughtry LLC account through transfers onto debit cards in others names, transfers into other banks and in-person cash withdrawals. Daughtry personally withdrew $38,550 from the account from Aug. 16, 2010 to Sept. 9, 2010, according to the statement of facts with his guilty plea.
