Her most recent exploit is documented by the Sixth Circuit. In this brief excerpt, we see her scheme begin to simultaneously unfold and unravel, and we learn a new definition of the word "panini".
In 2017, Cook brought a $1 million bill of exchange to a Regions Bank branch in Alcoa, Tennessee. The teller ran the bill of exchange through the bank’s “panini,” a check scanner that, to the teller’s eye, looks like a bread machine. The panini could not read the bill of exchange because it lacked magnetic ink coding. So the teller tried to deposit the bill, which purported to be “Non-Domestic,” as a foreign document. When that effort also failed, Cook left the bill with Regions for further processing.
The opinion helpfully includes a picture of the document in question, which reveals... certain... subtle... flaws.
(Yes, she would later claim that this document is so obviously bad that it shouldn't be criminal. This defense was unfortunately undermined by the fact that she also gave the bank dozens of pages of justifications for why the document is so obviously good that it should be accepted immediately.)
If you look at the docket of the underlying district court case, you'll find documents covering all sorts of classic sovcit hits: demands for the judge's oath and bond, postage stamps with magic words written on them diagonally, UCC references flying like popcorn kernels at a Rocky Horror showing... The list goes on.
Cook had previously tried a fake-income-tax-return scheme, using a 'nonprofit' organization with a rather foreshadowy name:
Cook’s legal troubles extended beyond the Regions incident. Around the same time as her attempt to cash the above financial instrument, Cook filed her 2016 tax return, which reported $3 million of income from a Tennessee nonprofit, Sheep Ministries, Inc. (Sheep), for which Cook served as executive director, and $1.5 million in tax paid. Cook claimed a $251,925 refund—the difference between the tax paid and the tax due. But she had not paid $1.5 million in tax. In truth, Cook fabricated her withholdings so the IRS would refund her over $250,000 that she had never paid
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