RALEIGH – Byron Javonne Deloatch of Conway will spend the next 30 months in a federal prison after entering a guilty plea for mail fraud and bank fraud.

In federal court here last Thursday (Sept. 8), United States Attorney Thomas G. Walker announced that U.S. District Judge Terrence W. Boyle sentenced Deloatch, age 42, to 30 months imprisonment followed by five years of supervised release.

A Federal Grand Jury returned a Superseding Criminal

Indictment on April 21, 2010. On February 24 of this year, Deloatch pled guilty to one count of mail fraud and two counts of bank fraud.

According to the investigation, in 2007 the Postal Inspection Service was contacted by a fraud investigator regarding the opening of fraudulent credit card accounts by Deloatch. It was learned that between August, 2001 and May, 2007, 14 business credit card accounts had been opened and an additional 46 had attempted to be opened. The accounts had been opened using fictitious business names and addresses.

Deloatch applied for the cards either in person at a store, by mailing in the application, or by applying online. He would have the cards sent to his mother’s post office box number in Conway.

Once he received the cards he began purchasing items. He would make payments on the credit cards by mailing checks, however, the checks were associated with accounts that were either closed, had insufficient funds, or were non-existent. In total, the loss to the financial institutions exceeded $243,000.

Investigation of this case was conducted by the United States Postal Inspection Service. Assistant United States Attorney Felice McConnell Corpening served as prosecutor for the government.