Rhode Island Man Sentenced to 28 Months for Years-Long Bank Fraud Conspiracy
Summary
DOJ announced the sentencing of Michael Brian Cotter, 64, of Rhode Island, to 28 months in prison for conspiracy to commit bank fraud. Cotter, CEO of a tech support company operating from a call center in India, artificially inflated sales numbers by running sham virtual debit card transactions to deceive banks about excessive consumer chargebacks. The scheme used customer personal identifying information without consent to disguise fraudulent activity.
What changed
Michael Brian Cotter was sentenced for conspiracy to commit bank fraud. Cotter ran a tech support company from an Indian call center and engaged in a years-long scheme to deceive banks by purchasing virtual debit cards to run thousands of sham transactions, artificially inflating sales numbers to keep chargeback ratios within acceptable thresholds. The scheme used real customer PII without authorization to disguise transactions as legitimate sales.
Compliance teams at financial institutions should note this case as an example of enforcement action against merchant fraud involving synthetic transaction manipulation. While this is a completed criminal prosecution rather than new regulatory guidance, it demonstrates continued DOJ focus on bank fraud involving chargeback manipulation and unauthorized use of consumer data.
What to do next
- Monitor for updates
Penalties
28 months imprisonment
Archived snapshot
Apr 10, 2026GovPing captured this document from the original source. If the source has since changed or been removed, this is the text as it existed at that time.
News
Press Release
Rhode Island Man Sentenced for Years-Long Bank Fraud Conspiracy
Friday, April 10, 2026
Share For Immediate Release Office of Public Affairs A Rhode Island man was sentenced yesterday to 28 months in prison for deceiving banks by artificially inflating his company’s sales numbers to avoid bank scrutiny over its excessive consumer chargebacks.
According to court documents, Michael Brian Cotter, 64, of Greenville, Rhode Island, was CEO of a tech support company that operated from a call center in India. In 2016, when banks began restricting the company’s ability to process debit and credit card payments because of fraud and chargeback concerns, Cotter and his co-conspirators began purchasing virtual debit cards to run thousands of sham transactions on their own merchant accounts. In doing so, Cotter artificially inflated the company’s sales numbers to make it appear to banks and their agents that the company’s chargeback ratios — a key metric used by banks to detect fraud — were within acceptable levels. Although this tactic amounted to the company effectively paying itself, Cotter used actual customer personal identifying information, without customers’ knowledge or consent, to disguise the transactions from banks by making them appear like legitimate sales.
Cotter pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud.
Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and Inspector in Charge Eric Shen of the United States Postal Inspection Service Criminal Investigations Group (USPIS CIG) made the announcement.
The USPIS investigated the case.
Trial Attorneys Jason Feldman and Shana Priore of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section prosecuted the case.
Updated April 10, 2026 Topic Financial Fraud Components Criminal Division Criminal - Criminal Fraud Section Press Release Number: 26-342
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