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Greenwood man sentenced after stealing nearly $3M through identity theft, mortgage fraud

Last Updated 1 week by Amnon J. Jobi | Amnon Front Page

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A Greenwood man will spend 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to stealing nearly $3 million and five houses through various fraud, identity theft, and money laundering schemes.

A release from the United States Attorney’s Office Southern District of Indiana, 35-year-old James Henley “orchestrated multiple large and complex fraud schemes, resulting in a total loss of $2,927,758.95 to individual homeowners, an Indiana attorney, a bank, and ten state governments” over the course of three years.

James Henley was not alone in his schemes, acting in them alongside his wife, Jameka Henley, and “associate” Jimmie Bickers.

Below are summaries of each of James Henley’s schemes, according to information shared by the attorney’s office.

COVID-19 fraud

According to the attorney’s office, James Henley, Jameka Henley, and Bickers used stolen info from 76 real people to submit 120 unemployment insurance applications to ten different states between May 2020 and March 2021.

Once the applications were approved, the three used a total of 65 unemployment insurance debit cards to make purchases and withdraw cash from different ATMs in Evansville.

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Through this scheme, the Henleys and Bickers received over $1.1 million in state unemployment benefits.

In 2020, the attorney’s office says James Henley used some of the money to buy a Chevy Camaro for $22,801.

Home title fraud

Between December 2021 and May 2023, James Henley stole five homes in Indianapolis.

Court documents say he filed fraudulent deeds with the Marion County Recorder’s Office, claiming the homeowners sold their homes to his fake business – though in reality, James Henley never knew or spoke to the homeowners.

After filing the deeds, he sold the homes for “significantly less” than their market value, pocketing more than $260,000 through the sales.

He also tried to steal 14 other homes in Indianapolis and Evansville.

The attorney’s office says that for one homeowner, the property James Henley stole from her was her childhood home.

“She purchased the home while her mother was in the hospital with the hope that, when her mother’s condition improved, her mother would be able to live out her remaining years in the house,” the release said.

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Mortgage fraud

In November 2021, “an associate” of James Henley’s bought a home in Indianapolis using a mortgage loan.

The following April, James Henley filed a false document with the recorder’s office to make it seem the mortgage loan had been paid off. Then, he filed a deed naming himself a joint owner of the house, and then he and his associate sold the property for $255,000.

They pocketed all the money, though the bank should have received most of it.

Auto loan fraud

Finally, in March 2023, James Henley bought a Dodge Durango using an auto loan through Everwise Credit Union to cover the $71,479 purchase.

Soon after in June, he bought a Chevy Silverado for $54,270 using a second Everwise loan.

Then in October 2023, James Henley attached a JPMorgan Chase bank account to the auto loans, falsely claiming the Chase account belonged to Jimmie Bickers. He also claimed “(Bickers) had the authority to make payments on his loans from the Chase account.”

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But the Chase account was actually an Indiana attorney’s “Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Account,” which the attorney’s office describes as a “highly regulated bank account used by lawyers to hold client funds.”

“The interest earned on IOLTA accounts is used to fund grants for nonprofit groups that promote pro bono and access to justice programs,” the release says.

James Henley did not have permission to access this account, and used the account to make two payments totaling almost $100,000 to cover the auto loans.

James Henley, who has previous convictions for other financial crimes, will spend three years under supervised release following his prison release.

His coconspirators, Jameka Henley and Jimmie Bickers, have been formally charged for their roles in the COVID-19 fraud, but have not entered a plea.