A Stone Mountain man was sentenced to 51 months in prison and ordered to pay almost $300,000 in restitution after defrauding a Columbia County family.
Marqualdis Antwon Logan, 38, pleaded guilty to eight counts of bank fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft, said Jill E. Steinberg, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia.
Logan, also known as “Alphonso Baugh,” presented or aided and abetted others in presenting forged or fraudulent checks drawn from a Suntrust money market account.
He succeeded in cashing or depositing $497,136 from the account during 2020, and was arrested while traveling in the U.S. Virgin Islands in November 2022, according to a news release.
“Hard-working individuals sacrifice to save money for their future needs, including retirement,” Steinberg said.
“Marqualdis Logan’s greed-driven scheme stole hundreds of thousands of dollars, and damages the financial security of his innocent victims,” she said.
U.S. District Court Chief Judge J. Randal Hall sentenced Logan to 51 months in prison, followed by five years of supervised release Wednesday.
Hall ordered Logan to pay $272,097 in restitution, for the amount still outstanding and not recovered, the release said.
When the Columbia County woman and her daughter noticed suspicious activity on the account, they notified the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office in September 2020.
The FBI determined Logan gained control of the account through a fake online profile.
As part of the plea agreement, Logan acknowledged his involvement in also stealing more than $100,000, by stealing the identity of the victim’s deceased husband.
He also admitted receiving $20,832 in a 2021 fraudulent Payroll Protection Program loan.
“These fraud scams, although not violent, are not victimless and can be devastating to individuals and their personal livelihoods,” said Brian Ozden, assistant special agent-in-charge at FBI Atlanta.
“This guilty plea shows the FBI’s dedication to working with our partners to hold anyone accountable who would steal from hardworking and honest individuals, rather than put in the work themselves,” Ozden said.
The case was investigated by the FBI and the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office, with assistance from the U.S. Marshals Service, and prosecuted for the United States by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer A. Stanley.
