Recently 49 year old Nelson Durald of Opelousas was sentenced to 23 months in prison, five years of supervised release and order to pay nearly a quarter of a million dollars in restitution. Durald was convicted in District Court of conspiracy to committ bank fraud.

According to evidence presented at hisguilty plea Durald was involved in a scheme to defraud banks and others with fake monetary instruments that were shipped to Durald from other countries. Durald and others recruited "Secret Shoppers" to which he mailed checks to and asked them to cash those checks. The victim was then told to mail a portion of the money received to another co-conspirator. This resulted in a loss of money by the banks and "Secret Shoppers". In all 316 counterfeit monetary instruments where seized with a total value of $247,829.15.

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