A man is on his way to prison for defrauding banks in Belgrade, Bozeman, and Livingston by forging checks with local homeless people.
Stanford Wilvin Lightfoot, 33, of Atlanta, Georgia, was sentenced on Monday to 57 months in prison, followed by five years of supervised release. He was also required to pay $161,401.17 in restitution.
In November 2024, Lightfoot pleaded guilty to bank fraud and aggravated identity theft.
A news release says the following:
The government alleged in court documents that for approximately 5 months in 2023, Stanford Lightfoot was a member of a large fraud ring that had been defrauding banks in Montana, Maine and Missouri. In each location, Lightfoot and other coconspirators would travel to the state from the base of operations in Atlanta, Georgia. Once there, they would recruit local homeless individuals who possessed valid ID cards. They would then take these homeless individuals to local banks and provide them with fraudulent checks from real accounts. These checks all possessed forged signatures of real people and were, therefore, means of identification. The homeless individuals would then attempt to cash the checks and, if successful, would provide the money to Lightfoot and his coconspirators. If the homeless individuals were caught by police, they would be abandoned to take the blame. In Montana, Lightfoot hit multiple banks in Belgrade, Bozeman, and Livingston utilizing local homeless individuals to forge checks in excess of $20,000.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office prosecuted the case and the investigation was conducted by the FBI, Livingston Police Department, Belgrade Police Department, and Bozeman Police Department.
