(Radio Iowa) – A federal grand jury has returned an indictment accusing 18 people from five states, including Iowa, with bank fraud and money laundering. Court documents list seven Iowa credit unions as victims of the nationwide scheme. The defendants are accused of depositing at least 10 MILLION dollars worth of stolen business checks. Prosecutors say they registered sham businesses with state and federal agencies that were identical or similar to the names of the legitimate business, then deposited the checks in accounts under those alternative business names. According to the U-S Attorney based in Des Moines, the group was able to withdraw at least two MILLION dollars from those fraudulent accounts. At least a dozen businesses in the U-S and Canada and 14 banks and credit unions were victims.

The names of the defendants are listed in court documents, but their addresses are not listed, so it’s unclear which defendants are from Iowa. The credit unions named include:

• Ascentra Credit Union
• Collins Community Credit Union
• Financial Plus Credit Union
• Greater Iowa Credit Union
• GreenState Credit Union, and
• Veridian Credit Union.