September 18, 2026

Bob Coleman
Founder & Publisher

Fraud Friday: The Fake Billionaire and $15.5 Million in Treasury Checks 

Kendrick Lamont Fugett brought a Treasury check to Bank of America and passed himself off as the billionaire businessman named on it. He had an Illinois driver’s license bearing the businessman’s name and Fugett’s photograph. The license number belonged to a real Illinois driver with the same first and last name as the billionaire, but a different middle name.

The check was for $447,156.18, payable to the businessman and a company. Fugett deposited it April 29, 2025, and drained the proceeds before the bank closed the account May 30.  

The Feds announced yesterday that Fugett, 34, had pleaded guilty to bank fraud. His operation reached four banks and involved $15.5 million in Treasury checks.

The following spring, Fugett went to Origin Bank in Dallas posing as the CFO of an Austin software company. He showed up with a fake Texas driver’s license, a certificate of information naming the CFO as the registered agent and sole officer, and an IRS notice showing the company’s EIN.

Three days later, Fugett came back and signed the beneficial ownership certification, corporate resolution, checking account signature card and bank card application using the CFO’s name. On May 5, a woman working with Fugett picked up the debit card and signed the bank’s “Mailed Card Exception Log.”

Twenty-four days later, Fugett sent a man into Origin posing as a courier. He carried a $13.88 million Treasury check payable to the company and deposited it into the account Fugett had opened under the CFO’s identity.

At Chase, Fugett used his own name. He presented his passport and a Texas assumed-name certificate to open “Kendrick Fugett DBA D.F.C.S.” The certificate had been stamped by the Dallas County Clerk’s office the previous day and listed his home as the business address. On May 5, the same day his associate picked up the Origin debit card, Fugett deposited a $1.19 million Treasury check payable to “DFCS.”

At Fifth Third Bank, Fugett used another fake Illinois driver’s license to negotiate a $13,679 Treasury check payable to a company and an individual. The photograph was Fugett’s. The name and birth date belonged to someone else.

While he was able to get the funds from the first $447,156, he couldn’t execute similar results from the other banks with the rest of the $15.5  million in checks. 

Sentencing is scheduled for January 14, 2027.