Milwaukee airport arrest, Mississippi man accused in fraud conspiracy
Demarte Winters
MILWAUKEE - A Mississippi man arrested at Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport on March 15 is now charged with two dozen felonies, accused in what authorities described as a fraud conspiracy.
Prosecutors said 25-year-old Demarte Winters used stolen checks to fraudulently take more than $90,000 from a victim – and had more than 150 checks totaling more than $240,000 inside a backpack.
According to a criminal complaint, a Transportation Security Administration employee reported a man trying to use a fake ID at a checkpoint. A sheriff's deputy spotted the suspect, since identified as Winters, on surveillance video and found him in the airport's car rental lobby with a backpack under his leg.
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When asked about the ID, the complaint states Winters said he gave it to someone else who had left the airport, provided a fake name and denied the backpack was his. He was then taken to an airport substation for further questioning, during which he contradicted his original story – telling investigators the fake ID used at the TSA checkpoint was in his pocket. He then identified himself as Winters.
Deputies found 155 checks with different people's names on them – worth a combined amount of $243,167.40 – inside the backpack, per the complaint. An investigation found 38 of those checks had been stolen from U.S. Postal Service mailboxes and used for fraudulent transactions. Of those, 13 checks were used to take $91,760.55 from a victim's account. Two more checks were verified as fraud totaling more than $30,000, but that money was not obtained.
Court records show Winters made his initial appearance in Milwaukee County Court on Friday, March 29. His cash bond was set at $50,000.