All Check Kiting Scams are Local ! Emotional Abuse too ?

Testimony: Wife Shot Minister After Fight

By WOODY BAIRD , 06.30.2006, 05:43 PM

A minister's wife charged with murdering her husband told police she shot him after they argued over family finances and then told him "I'm sorry" as he lay dying in their bedroom, according to testimony at a bond hearing Friday.
Mary Winkler, 32, has been jailed without bond since March 23, accused of killing her husband, Matthew Winkler, 31, at their Church of Christ parsonage in Selmer, a small town 80 miles east of Memphis.
In court Friday, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Agent Brian Booth read a statement Mary Winkler gave authorities in Alabama, where she was arrested a day after her husband's body was found by church members.
Booth testified that Winkler told police she knew her husband kept a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun in the closet of the home where they lived with their three daughters. She said she didn't remember getting the gun.
"The next thing I remember was hearing a loud boom. I remember thinking it wasn't as loud as I thought it would be," Booth said, reading from Winkler's statement.
She told police her husband rolled from the bed onto the floor after being shot.
"He asked me why, and I just said `I'm sorry,'" Booth read from the statement.
Prosecutor Walter Freeland said Matthew Winkler was shot in the back from close range with a 12-gauge shotgun as he lay in bed, with the blast breaking his spine and tearing into internal organs.
"When she left, Matthew Winkler was still alive," Freeland said.
Winkler said she and her husband had argued throughout the evening about several things, including family finances. The problems were "mostly my fault," she said, because she was in charge of keeping the family books.

"He had really been on me lately criticizing me for things - the way I walk, I eat, everything. It was just building up to a point. I was tired of it. I guess I got to a point and snapped," Booth read to the court.

Booth said that shortly before the killing, Mary Winkler had shifted money between at least two banks in what he described as a "check kiting" scam. She deposited checks totaling $17,500 in family bank accounts from unidentified sources in Canada and Nigeria, he said.
The checks and money exchanges were not detailed in court, but defense lawyers said Mary Winkler was the victim of a financial scam.
"In certain scams, you may have to send money to somebody that's holding money. You send them a good check. They send you a bad check," Winkler's lawyer, Steve Farese, said after the hearing. He declined to provide more details.
Judge Weber McCraw is expected to decide, perhaps by next week, if he will set a bond. Prosecutors asked McCraw to keep Winkler in jail to await her trial scheduled in October.
The defense has asked for reasonable bond to be set for Winkler, who is charged with first-degree murder. The prosecution is seeking no bond, saying it is a capital case. Prosecutors haven't indicated whether they plan to seek the death penalty, although they have until 30 days before the trial to announce their intentions.
Church members were expected to testify on the Winkler's behalf.

source: http://www.forbes.com/entrepreneurs/feeds/ap/2006/06/30/ap2853270.html
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Saturday July 1, 2006

News Woman nearly taken by scam

By Candace Cooksey Fulton — Brownwood Bulletin

A local elderly woman almost fell victim to a newly popular international check cashing scam, and law enforcement officials are renewing their warnings to people to be wary of any money transactions — especially if they involve wiring or sending money to an unknown and unverifiable recipient.
The woman, a longtime customer at Ace Cash Express whose checks had always been good according to the store manager Mona Avey, presented a check on Tuesday for $2,950 that was counterfeit.
Avey contacted Brown-wood police officer Scotty Burke, and according to Burke’s report, the woman had received the check in the mail along with a letter of instruction, advising her to cash the check and “pay a tax agent the sum of $2,950 for government taxes.” The letter informed her to wire the money in a Western Union transfer to a Barbara Williams at 100 King St., Toronto, Canada. After that money was processed, the letter informed the woman she would receive a second check for $245,125.
Avey told Burke she was confident the woman was misled and confused. Since the letter included the words “government taxes” the woman may have felt she had no choice but to comply, Avey said.
In an interview several weeks ago with the Bulletin, Avey said there had been a surge in fraudulent checks and money orders in the last few weeks.
People attempting to cash these documents have typically been the victim of a scam, Avey said, and are referred to local law enforcement authorities.
But in a warning issued by the Brown County Sheriff’s Office earlier this week, Sheriff Bobby Grubbs said the newly popular scam involves a U.S./Canada money transfer.
“Once it goes international, our hands are tied. People can be taken for thousands of dollars and we’ve seen it happen,” Grubbs said. “Due to the international scope of these scams, law enforcement has little hope of making arrests or recovering losses.”
In a second incident involving money transfers, also reported to police on Thursday, TexasBank intends to press charges on a woman who apparently fraudulently deposited, then withdrew, $4,230. TexasBank executive Carey Stewart reported to police officer Zane Taylor the woman made five deposits between May 31 and June 3 into her TexasBank account on checks from an account in her name at the Fort Worth Credit Union.
According to Taylor’s report, as soon as the money was deposited, the woman would make an ATM withdrawal for what showed to be the available amount. The five checks, which totaled $4,230, were all returned from the Fort Worth Credit Union due to insufficient funds.
Stewart informed Taylor he had tried repeatedly to contact the woman, but she had not answered the phone or returned his calls. The bank had been advised by Assistant District Attorney Vance Hill to press charges, Taylor’s report states.

source: http://www.brownwoodbulletin.com/articles/2006/07/01/news/news03.txt