Lakeland man sentenced to prison for bank fraud

A Lakeland man has been sentenced to two years in prison after he pleaded guilty to bank fraud. Abraham Othman Yacoub, 27, must also forfeit more than $181,500, which prosecutors say was the loss to the financial institutions he victimized.

Yacoub was the registered agent for two Tampa companies — Visionary Auto Body LLC and Visionary Auto Care LLC — according to state records. He opened business banking accounts for both of the businesses at Wells Fargo, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase Bank, TD Bank, Cadence Bank, Regions Bank, Seacoast Bank, First Horizon and Bank of Tampa, according to his plea agreement.

From 2021 to 2023, Yacoub defrauded several financial institutions in the Tampa area by making dozens of fraudulent deposits and withdrawals on behalf of Visionary Auto Body and Visionary Auto Care, his plea agreement says. Yacoub would take checks that he had already deposited at one bank and deposit them again at another bank, the agreement states.

“Yacoub then withdrew, transferred or otherwise spent the funds credited to his accounts from these previously deposited checks before the financial institution realized that the check had previously been deposited,” prosecutors say in a statement.

In addition to two years in prison, U.S. District Court Judge Virginia M. Hernandez Covington ordered Yacoub to be on probation for five years.

Yacoub will serve his sentence in the bank fraud case after he is done serving another sentence for violating airport security requirements and attempted possession of a dangerous weapon on an aircraft, prosecutors say. In that case, Yacoub brought a Glock 19 and assorted ammunition to Tampa International Airport in 2023, then hid the firearm in a bathroom after his bag went through the x-ray machine at a security checkpoint, according to authorities. He pleaded guilty in the case and was sentenced in July 2024 to three-and-a-half years in prison.

Judges in the bank fraud and airport security cases each separately ordered Yacoub to undergo mental health treatment and drug testing as part of his sentencing, according to court documents.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Karyna Valdes prosecuted the bank fraud case, which was investigated by the FBI.