An Olympia man is facing seven felonies including identity theft and money laundering for allegedly stealing thousands of dollars from a Kelso man in fraudulent bank transactions.
Chea Bradford Knowles, 31, of Olympia is facing charges of two counts of identity theft, two counts of money laundering, two counts of theft, and one count of criminal impersonation.
Court records show he left Cowlitz County Jail on a $2,500 bond on Sept. 5. A public defender has been appointed to represent Knowles and he is scheduled to appear Wednesday in Cowlitz County Superior Court.
According to a police report, security footage captured Knowles as he made two separate withdrawals totaling $14,500 on Aug. 7 from a Twin Star Credit Union in Olympia.
A teller told police Knowles said a friend was helping him pay his bills, so he preferred the large amount of funds in cash.
The victim, who lives in Kelso, told the police he received a phone call earlier that day from a phone number that matched his Twin Star Credit Union, but the caller didn’t specify which branch they were from.
The caller told the victim his account had fraudulent purchases from Best Buy in Cleveland, Ohio, so he needed the victim’s username and helped him change his password.
Soon after, the victim received a notification from his credit union saying a substantial amount of money was deducted from his account.
In addition to the two withdraws, there was also a third attempted transfer for $725, but the account was frozen because it was suspected of fraudulent activity, the police report states.
