Opinion ID: 614602
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The FBI's Investigation and Gilchrist's Perjury

Text: After making two fraudulent withdrawals from his own account as charged in Counts 11 and 12 of the Indictment, Gilchrist submitted fraud claim reports to Wells Fargo, falsely claiming that the fraudulent transactions were actually made by an unknown thief who had broken into Gilchrist's car and stolen his wallet, identification, ATM card, and Wells Fargo bank information. Counts 11 and 12 of the Indictment charge that Gilchrist fraudulently withdrew $8,000 and then $8,750 from two different Wells Fargo accounts that did not belong to him, one on February 28, 2000 and one on February 29, 2000. Gilchrist then failed to cooperate with Wells Fargo's investigation of his fraud claim reports. When Wells Fargo rejected his fraud claim reports, Gilchrist commenced a civil action against Wells Fargo to recover the amount of money he had already stolen from his phony account, by means of the fraudulent withdrawals later charged in Counts 11 and 12 of the Indictment. Wells Fargo reported Gilchrist's fraudulent activities to the FBI, which opened its investigation in June 2001, five months before Gilchrist committed perjury. In November 2001, Gilchrist gave a deposition in his civil case against Wells Fargo in which he testified under oath that a thief had stolen his bank information and was responsible for the fraudulent withdrawals; Gilchrist also repeatedly lied about his Social Security number and whether he had ever had a California driver's license.