South Florida man accused of defrauding 74-year-old of $20,000 through bank fraud scheme

A South Florida man was arrested earlier this month after he allegedly swindled an Alabama resident out of more than $20,000 in cash through a bank fraud scheme, the Broward Sheriff’s Office said.

Omari Burke, 22, of Pompano Beach, is facing charges of organized fraud, money laundering, unlawful use of a two-way communications device, defrauding a financial institution and grand theft of a person 65 years or older, court records show.

In August, a 74-year-old man submitted a complaint to the FBI that he fell for a phone scam where someone purporting to be a Wells Fargo employee from the fraud department told him someone was trying to withdraw $20,000 from his bank account, according to a probable cause affidavit.

A second person involved in the scam, whose name is redacted in the affidavit, claimed to be an agent, making the man think law enforcement was investigating. The man was told to withdraw $20,500 and ship it through FedEx to a home in the 200 block of Northeast 40th Street in Deerfield Beach, the affidavit said.

Deerfield Beach detectives traced the money to Burke, who had posted a photo on social media “bragging about the money he received from the scam,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.

Omari Burke, 22, was arrested on Sept. 16, 2025, by the Broward Sheriff’s Office. (Broward Sheriff’s Office/Courtesy)

The victim, in a recorded statement released by the Sheriff’s Office, said he felt something was off with what he was being told to do, but he also received messages that purported to be from Wells Fargo and looked authentic to him.

“It didn’t sound right to me … It just bugged me, but hell, I thought they were legit. I thought because they gave me all them codes, they were talking like they were agents and everything … It drained my savings account for one thing, and put me in kind of a financial hurt,” he told the Sheriff’s Office.

Burke was arrested at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Sept. 16. He remained in the Joseph V. Conte Facility as of Friday.

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2025/09/26/south-florida-man-accused-of-defrauding-74-year-old-of-20000-through-bank-fraud-scheme/