Nonprofit founder, bank employees indicted in fraud scheme

The founder of a District-based charity and four former Bank of America employees are accused of falsifying donations to the nonprofit in order to make money for themselves through the bank’s contribution-matching program.

An indictment filed this week in federal court in Alexandria states 31-year-old Stephan Bekale, a former Penn State basketball player and the founder of the D.C. nonprofit Hoops for Africa, conspired with the bank employees to defraud the Bank of America Charitable Foundation out of $276,000.

The foundation matches employees’ gifts to nonprofit organizations, and the indictment says Bekale and the employees made and recruited others to make fictitious donations to fraudulently obtain matching funds from the bank.

Bekale and bank employees Irma DeMartini, 28, of Sterling; Jamal Ibraheem, 38, of Bethesda; Martiza Villarroel, 34, of Clifton, Va.; and Reynaldo Villarroel, 38, of Bolivia, have been charged with wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Bekale is also charged with money laundering.