Former Inmate Sentenced To More 12 Years For Schemes From Behind Bars

And AGAIN, a criminal thought he could commit the same crime he had already committed and gotten jailed for. Former inmate, Danwine Dewayne Renard, was sentenced to a 144 month term in prison following his plea of guilty to participating in an identity theft scheme while incarcerated. Renard has also been ordered to pay 122,943.72 in restitution and a $49,000 forfeiture judgment. He will also serve a five year supervised release.

In July of 2011, Renard entered a guilty plea to four counts superseding indictment charging conspiracy to commit mail, wire and bank fraud; aiding and abetting bank fraud; AND two counts of aiding and abetting aggravated identity theft.

At the time of his plea, Renard entered into a factual stipulation which indicated that beginning in approximately July, 2008, and continuing until on or about November, 2010, in Madison and St. Clair Illinois Counties, and elsewhere, Renard, acting with others, including Selena Marie Bradford (aka Selena Renard), engaged in a scheme involving identity theft, fraudulent identification documents, mail fraud, wire fraud, and bank fraud.

Renard’s role in the conspiracy primarily consisted of providing advice, guidance, and encouragement via interstate prison phone calls and by way of U.S. Mail to his co-conspirators, including Bradford. Bradford would obtain genuine state identification documents in the names of real individuals, and she and a co-conspirator would open bank accounts in those names. The balances of the fraudulently opened bank accounts would be inflated by depositing checks from other fraudulently opened bank accounts. Then funds would be withdrawn, often by way of ATMs, though there were insufficient funds to cover the withdrawals. Often, insufficient funds checks would be passed in order to obtain merchandise.

A co-conspirator would produce fake payroll checks drawn on some of the fraudulently opened accounts and would cash them at various locations. Funds obtained during the scheme were used for a variety of purposes, including paying living expenses, paying costs associated with perpetrating the scheme, purchasing merchandise, and for funding Renard’s prison trust account. As detailed in the factual stipulations, during several transactions, to include the acquisition of food stamp benefits in a victim’s name, Renard was on the jail phone with Bradford, providing her encouragement and guidance.

Renard has been in federal custody since his arraignment on December of 2010. Bradford is currently serving a 132 month federal sentence and was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $122,943.72 as a result of her role in the scheme – Source.

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