Honduran national sentenced to 27 months in bank fraud case

An illegal alien from Honduras has been sentenced to 27 months in prison for his role in a bank fraud conspiracy that involved the Poteau Police Department, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma announced.

Carlos Banegas-Contreras, 47, was sentenced on one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud. He pleaded guilty to the charge on Oct. 6, 2025, in federal district court.

According to investigators, Banegas-Contreras and others conspired in June 2023 to use fake identification cards to cash 178 fraudulent paychecks totaling $299,474 at three check-cashing businesses and five branches of a local bank. The fraudulent paychecks were designed to look like they had been issued by a building materials supply company in the Eastern District of Oklahoma.

The case was investigated by the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. Secret Service, the Indiana State Police, the Benton County, Indiana Sheriff’s Department, the Benton County, Indiana Prosecutor’s Office, the Poteau Police Department, and the Houston Police Department.

The Honorable John F. Heil III, chief judge in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, presided over the hearing. Banegas-Contreras remains in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service pending transport to a Bureau of Prisons facility to serve his sentence, which is not eligible for parole.

Assistant U.S. Attorney T. Cameron McEwen represented the United States.

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