CARTERSVILLE, Ga. – A former Cartersville manufacturing business owner faces federal bank and wire fraud charges after allegedly defrauding First Financial Bank out of more than $20 million through forged documents.
What we know:
Federal authorities arraigned 48-year-old Thomas Mwangi of Atlanta last week following a federal grand jury indictment charging him with two counts of bank fraud and 13 counts of wire fraud.
Mwangi, who owned and operated the Cartersville manufacturing company CAMaster, allegedly tricked First Financial Bank into approving $24 million in loans in 2023 to buy two Texas companies.
Federal prosecutors stated Mwangi falsified a brokerage statement to show $22 million in assets when he had less than $1 million, while also providing a forged document purporting to acknowledge the bank’s security interest.
After receiving the loan funds, Mwangi allegedly sent…
PAYROLL & HR CONTROLS (PREVENTING “GHOST” SCHEMES)
Payroll fraud is often the hardest to detect because it “looks” like a normal business expense.
- Segregation of Duties (SoD): The person who adds new employees to the system must not be the same person who approves the monthly pay run.
- Mandatory Vacation Policy: Require all financial and HR staff to take 5–10 consecutive days of leave annually. Fraud often surfaces when the perpetrator isn’t there to “hide” the trail.
- Ghost Employee Audit: Perform a quarterly “Headcount Reconciliation” where managers must physically verify every name on their payroll list exists.
- Self-Pay Blocking: Ensure the payroll software has a hard-coded block preventing administrators from editing their own salary or bank details.