FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Authorities booked a man and woman into the Broward County jail over the weekend after they were federally indicted on bank fraud charges.
Federal prosecutors accuse Lacretia Roquel Pratt and Bennie Ware III of netting nearly $800,000 from a fraudulent auto loan scheme after stealing multiple victims’ identities.
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Authorities arrested Pratt, 50, on Saturday and arrested Ware, 54, on Sunday.
According to court documents from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, the pair were involved in companies Jacksonville-based Ride Now Auto Sales, LLC, Davie-based Ben Auto Sales Inc., and Miami-based Marshall Construction Cleaning Inc.
The documents state that on Nov. 2, 2017, Ware, Pratt and other co-conspirators added a victim as a managing member of Ride Now in Florida corporation records, then used that person’s identity to open a Bank of America checking account in the name of Ride Now.
Prosecutors allege that Ware, Pratt and other co-conspirators submitted fraudulent loan applications using the identities of five other victims, claiming they had agreed to purchase vehicles from Ride Now and Ben Auto.
A number of credit unions issued cashier’s checks for the loans as a result of the fraudulent applications, prosecutors said. Ware, Pratt and other co-conspirators, they said, also “obtained and created forged or counterfeit checks” in the name of three “corporate victims.”
The indictment documents say the pair and other co-conspirators deposited at least $794,713 worth of cashiers’ checks into Ride Now and Ben Auto accounts.
Ware and Pratt are each facing one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and eight counts of bank fraud.
Ware was being held in the Broward Sheriff’s Office Main Jail in Fort Lauderdale while Pratt was being held at BSO’s North Broward Bureau facility in Pompano Beach, according to online jail records.
Read the indictment: