BOSTON – A Quincy man was sentenced On March 4, 2026 in federal court in Boston for bank fraud and money laundering.
Eric Banks, 71, was sentenced by Chief U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper 14 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release. In November 2025, Banks pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud and five counts of money laundering.
Banks obtained a stolen U.S. Treasury check for $1,127,331.80 made out to a New York-based company. Banks formed a Massachusetts-based entity with the same name, opened a bank account for that fake entity and deposited the check. Banks then conducted multiple illegal money transactions designed to conceal the source of the funds from the stolen Treasury check. In addition, Banks created a second fake entity and opened a bank account in the name of this second fake entity. Other individuals who obtained and deposited stolen U.S. Treasury checks transferred over $1.3 million to this bank account created by Banks. This was part of a scheme involving seven other defendants charged in separate charging documents:
1. Gino Rosario Tyler Alexander Allegra, 31, of Brockton, charged with theft of $861,646 in government funds;
2. Jesse El-Ghoul, 31, of Leominster, charged with theft of $1,355,863 in government funds;
3. Nnamdi Opara, 30, of Woburn, charged with theft of $700,767 in government funds;
4. Gurprit Singh, 34, of Framingham, charged with theft of $2,547,508 in government funds;
5. Amarpreet Singh, 33, of Framingham, charged with theft of $536,214 in government funds;
6. Lonnie Smith-Matthews, 33, of Hyde Park, charged with theft of $150,000 in government funds and bank fraud of $232,588; and
7. Domingo Villari, 49, of Framingham, charged with theft of $1,288,575 in government funds.
United States Attorney Leah B. Foley; Thomas Demeo, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, Boston Field Office; Michael Carpenter, Special Agent in Charge of the Treasury Inspector General; and Nicholas Bucciarelli, Acting Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s Boston Division made the announcement today. Valuable assistance was provided by the Needham Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Brian Sullivan and Seth Kosto of the Criminal Division are prosecuting the cases.
