Dunn Lampton, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi, announced today that Stacy Lynn Bryant, of Jackson, Mississippi; Conswalo Bryant, of Alabama; and Angileque Smith Bryant, of Alabama; were sentenced by U.S. District Judge Tom S. Lee for their part in a scheme to steal $297,657.26 from Hospital Benefits, Inc. ("HBI"), a Jackson area business.

Stacy Lynn Bryant, as the organizer of the conspiracy, was sentenced to 24 months imprisonment and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $297,656.76. Angileque Smith Bryant was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $267,088.39. Conswalo Bryant was sentenced to 6 months of home confinement with electronic monitoring, followed by 5 years of probation, and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $30,568.37.

As part of the embezzlement scheme, which occurred between November 2002 and August 2003, Conswalo Bryant and Angileque Smith Bryant conspired with Stacy Lynn Bryant, an employee of HBI, who used her access to HBI's computer system to generate fraudulent patient benefit checks with fictitious names as the payee totaling $297,657.26. These fraudulent checks were mailed through the U.S. mail to Conswalo Bryant and Angileque Smith Bryant. Once Conswalo Bryant and Angileque Smith Bryant received the fraudulent checks, they deposited the checks into their accounts, return a large portion of the funds to Stacy Lynn Bryant, and kept the remainder for themselves. In total, Conswalo Bryant received 6 fraudulent checks totaling $30,568.37 and Angileque Smith Bryant received 25 fraudulent checks totaling $267,088.39. This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jerry Abdalla.