BATON ROUGE — A 26-year-old Baton Rouge man was sentenced to four years in federal prison after he pleaded guilty in federal court in April to defrauding multiple banks and theft of mail, according to U.S. Attorney Kurt Wall.
In late 2025, Marvell Trevenski Jackson was arrested in Baton Rouge on multiple charges including one count of theft over $25,000; one count of illegal transmission of monetary funds; and one count of bank fraud, according to the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office (EBRSO). He was also arrested and charged in Iberville Parish on Oct. 17, 2025, with one count of theft over $5,000 but less than $25,000; one count of bank fraud; and one count of illegal transmission of monetary funds.
For his convictions, Jackson faced a maximum of 35 years in prison, a $1,250,000 fine, and up to 8 years of supervised release, along with restitution.
However, a federal judge sentenced Jackson to serve 48 months (4 years) in federal prison, along with three years of supervised release. Jackson is also ordered to pay $378,394 in restitution and to forfeit an additional $238,804.45 to the U.S. government.
According to admissions from his guilty plea, between July 2023 and at least May 2025, Jackson conspired with others to defraud multiple financial institutions, including Neighbors Federal Credit Union, Essential Federal Credit Union, First Guarantee Bank and Trust, Navy Federal Credit Union, and Regions Bank, among others.
Some of the methods that Jackson and the others used included stealing or using stolen mail to obtain information of bank customers, altering or washing checks stolen from the mail, creating fake checks using stolen bank account information, sending spam text messages to bank customers, and using confidential information to unlawfully access and transfer funds from victims’ accounts.
According to Wall’s office, to avoid being caught, Jackson recruited individuals, commonly known as “money mules”, to either open accounts or whose existing accounts could be used to receive the funds. After the funds were deposited into the accounts, the individuals withdrew the money, keeping part of it for themselves and giving the majority of it to Jackson.
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According to a warrant from 2025, when the Neighbors FCU Fraud Department investigated, they discovered that the funds that were transferred out of affected members’ accounts were allegedly transferred into “mostly newly acquired accounts.” From there, the monies were withdrawn from the accounts via different sources, including ATM, Cash App, Apple, and the L’Auberge Casino teller window.
In addition to conspiracy to commit bank fraud, Jackson also conspired with others to obtain personal identifying information and both personal and business checks stolen from the U.S. mail. This happened between at least July 2023 until at least May 2024, according to Wall’s office.
Altogether, Jackson and his conspirators tried to get over $500,000 by negotiating, and attempting to negotiate, altered or counterfeit checks using checks and other financial data obtained from stolen U.S. mail.
Jackson and others also engaged in “smishing,” which is short for “SMS phishing,” a cyber-attack technique whereby perpetrators use Short Message Service (“SMS”) or text messages claiming to be from reputable companies to convince victims to reveal personal information, like usernames, passwords, or bank account numbers.
Between April and May 2025, members of the conspiracy sent fraudulent text messages to customers of multiple banks and credit untions. The text messages falsely reported unauthorized financial transactions and directed customers to provide login credentials and other confidential information needed to access their bank accounts.
In some instances, members of the conspiracy followed fraudulent text messages with phone calls to the customers to gather information regarding their accounts by impersonating bank employees. According to a warrant, the caller posing as the credit union told members “they would shut down their access to their accounts for 48 hours while they investigated it.” When the members viewed their account balances, that’s when they saw that most of their funds were gone from the account, the warrant says.
Jackson and his co-conspirators executed the smishing scheme in the following parishes: East Baton Rouge, Iberville, Livingston, and others, defrauding multiple financial institutions and their customers of over $300,000.
During the smishing scheme, Jackson used his Instagram account to advertise for and communicate with others involved.
“Fraud comes in all shapes and sizes,” stated U.S. Attorney Wall. “This administration, and our office, are committed to using every tool available to pursue fraudsters and hold them fully accountable for their actions.”
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