Fake documents tied to $244,000 in auto loans, investigators say
Tulsa, OK – 16 July 2018 – Twenty-two people have been charged on allegations that a member of a Tulsa credit union provided fraudulent documents to the individuals, allowing them to obtain auto loans totaling more than $244,000.
One man, Barry Paul Wright, Wright, 41, is referred to in some records as Paul Barry Wright and was allegedly responsible for providing the fake documents used to obtain the loans.
Wright has been charged with 23 felony counts of obtaining property under false pretenses. The other 21 co-defendants have each been charged with one felony count of obtaining property under false presentences, according to Oklahoma state court records.
“All 21 claimed they paid Wright more than $2,000 for fake Social Security numbers and paystubs,” KRJH, a Tulsa-based news station, reported. “Wright even created fake businesses such as Wright Way Communications.”
Court documents show that an investigator at Tinker Federal Credit Union contacted police about the discovery of several people who allegedly applied for vehicle loans using fraudulent information between April and September 2016.
Wright was reportedly the first to apply for, and was granted, a vehicle loan in April 2016 using fake information and received a loan of more than $20,000 for a Mercedes Benz.
According to investigators, Wright’s Facebook page shows social connections with several people who had already been identified as having obtained fraudulent loans.
In November 2016, one of the people charged, Paul White, attempted to make a loan payment and was confronted by a TFCU’s investigator, who allegedly advised White that he knew that White had used a false Social Security number.
According to court records, White reportedly admitted to the investigator that he received the phony pay stub and Social Security number from Wright. He reportedly advised the investigator that he paid Wright $2,500 for the information.
The documents state that the 22 people received loans ranging from $10,000 to $22,000.
Assistant District Attorney Tom Sawyer said, “The false pretenses we’re alleging are social security numbers that don’t belong to them and false documents they used to obtain the loans.”
Sawyer said, “We’d like to get them all together and do them at once, but when you have 22 or 23 defendants and 22 or 23 counts, that might not be
The assistant district attorney said, “I would not call it common. We looked at it and said, yeah, there’s a lot of people and a lot of moving parts. So, it’s definitely not common.”
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