Hip hop group leader from Charlotte sentenced in $1.2 million ID theft scheme

The leader of a Charlotte hip-hop group was sentenced to nine years in prison this week for his role in a $1.2 million bank and identity theft fraud scheme, federal prosecutors said.

Damonte Withers and six members of his FreeBandz Gang group financed what prosecutors called their lavish lifestyles by defrauding banks through a scheme involving worthless checks, The Charlotte Observer reported when they were indicted in December 2017.

The 30-year-old Withers is known as “Tony da Boss” on social media, according to a news release by the office of U.S. Attorney Andrew Murray in Charlotte on Thursday.

He and his band mates raised their profile by posting hip-hop music videos and images on YouTube and Facebook that showed them with guns, lots of cash, jewelry and cars, according to the indictment.

The group deposited fake or stolen checks into straw bank accounts and then quickly withdrew the money before the banks finished clearing the checks, the indictment says. Prosecutors have not released the names of the banks that were victimized.

Others in the scheme paid people to open new bank accounts or let them use their existing accounts and PIN numbers to carry out the fraud, according to prosecutors. In other cases, the indictment says, group members stole ATM cards and PINs to access the bank accounts.

A judge in U.S. District Court in Charlotte on Thursday also ordered Withers to serve two years of court supervision after his sentence and pay more than $1 million in restitution, according to a news release by the office of U.S. Attorney Andrew Murray in Charlotte.

Wirthers was the last of the FreeBandz Gang group members to be sentenced, prosecutors said in the release:

Nemiah Davis was previously sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison; Quadarius Thomas to five years and five months; Jeffrey Monteith to four years and 10 months; Deandre Howze to four years and nine months; Laerek Williams four years and six months; and James Willingham to four years and four months.