Lusby woman convicted of federal fraud schemes

A 45-year-old Lusby woman was convicted on April 25 by a jury in federal court for conspiracies to commit passport, wire and bankruptcy fraud, as well as making a false statement in a bankruptcy proceeding.

A U.S. Department of Justice press release stated that, according to testimony during defendant Charmaine Miesha Brown’s five-day trial in Greenbelt, in January 2014 Brown, a U.S. citizen, married Andrews Oduro Brown, a/k/a “Andrews Oduro,” a Ghanaian national who entered the U.S. in May 2013. In 2021, Oduro obtained legal permanent resident status in the country through his marriage to Brown.

According to trial testimony, including testimony from Brown, and court documents, from December 2014 through April 2021 Brown and Oduro conspired to obtain U.S. passports for Oduro’s children, who were non-U.S. citizens, through false statements and fraudulent identity documents.

Federal officials stated the evidence presented at the trial “proved that from August 2016 through April 2021, Brown and Oduro conspired to receive payments from the state of Maryland’s Child Care Scholarship Program to which they were not entitled.”

Federal officials also stated that, according to trial testimony and court documents, on March 5, 2018, Brown and Oduro defrauded creditors and a trustee by filing a fraudulent Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition in federal bankruptcy court using the name and partial social security number of another individual, seeking the discharge of thousands of dollars in debts and tax obligations to the state of Maryland that Oduro incurred.

Brown faces a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison for conspiracy to commit passport fraud; a maximum of 20 years in federal prison for conspiracy to commit wire fraud; a maximum of five years in prison for bankruptcy fraud; and a maximum of five years in prison for a false statement in a federal bankruptcy proceeding.

Federal Judge Theodore D. Chuang has scheduled sentencing for Brown on July 23.

Last December, Andrews Oduro Brown, 41, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit passport fraud, aggravated identity theft, and bankruptcy fraud. He was sentenced to 28 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution of $127,951.22.

Erek L. Barron, a U.S. attorney, commended the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service, the Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General and the Department of Homeland Security for their work in the investigation.