A press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Middle District of Georgia announced that a third guilty plea was entered in a $3 million fraud case that targeted a bank in Gray.
James Kevin Meyers, 57, entered his guilty plea Feb. 18 to the charge of filing false reports. The charge has a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release and a $500,000 fine.
Meyers was listed as the manager of Mr. Kevin’s Check Cashing on Pio Nono Avenue in Macon but gave his home address as Gray. The release states five checks were cashed in the amounts of $166,788, $117,409, $93,338, $126,743 and $280,113.
As a domestic financial institution, the defendant was legally required to comply with regulations that include filing Currency Transaction Reports (CTRs) for transactions exceeding $10,000.
The CTRs filed by Meyers in the five referenced transactions were found to be false.
The other guilty pleas in the case were from co-defendants Ronnie Atkinson and Alan Childs, both of Jones County.
“The manager of a Macon check cashing company pleaded guilty to filing false reports resulting from a larger investigation into a bank fraud conspiracy targeting a Morris Bank branch in Gray,” the release states.
The plea was before U.S.
District Judge Marc T.
Treadwell. A sentencing date was not released.
The facts in the case showed Atkinson took out numerous loans with Morris Bank, where Childs served as market president and assisted Atkinson in obtaining them.
The release states Atkinson got loans in his name and in the name of straw borrowers. Many of the loans were alleged to be for the purchase of equipment and items from various individuals.
Morris Bank would issue a check to the listed seller.
Atkinson brought at least five of the checks to Mr.
Kevin’s Check Cashing to be cashed. That happened several times without the listed payee present. The checks were always more than $10,000.
The CTR should have listed the person who presented the check and left with the cash as Atkinson. Instead, the CTRs listed the payees of the check, although they were not present and did not collect the cash.
“Meyers would either personally cash these checks for Atkinson or direct his employees to cash them and also file the CTRs with the listed payee’s name, even though it was Atkinson who actually cashed the checks.”
Atkinson entered his plea May 12, 2025, and was sentenced Feb. 5 to serve 84 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release. He plead to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and one count of aggravated identity fraud.
Atkinson was ordered to pay $3,357,073 in restitution.
Childs pleaded guilty April 12, 2025, to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud. He was sentenced Sept. 17, 2025, to serve 12 months and one day and ordered by pay $3,094,200 in restitution.
There is no parole in the federal system.
The case was investigated by the FBI and was prosecuted by U.S.
Attorney Elizabeth Howard.
