SOUTH BEND, Ind. (WNDU) - A South Bend man has been arrested in connection with a massive bank fraud scheme that’s being investigated by a grand jury in Iowa.

55-year-old John Winston Jr. is one of 18 defendants listed in the indictment. It includes charges of bank fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and money laundering.

He lives right here in Michiana and may look familiar to you. We’ll explain why that is in just a moment, but first let’s explain the indictment.

The scheme dates all the way back to December of 2021 and May of this year. It included mail theft, where multiple defendants, including Winston, stole checks from the mail intended to be received by legit businesses.

The FBI says defendants registered fake entities with state government agencies, like the Iowa Secretary of State, using names almost like the intended recipients of the checks.

The indictment claims the defendants applied for and got EINs (employer identification numbers) from the government to create the fake businesses as a way to get the money they weren’t entitled to.

Mind you, many of the defendants lived in Iowa, Illinois or Indiana, but this scheme leaked into several states and even part of Canada (Georgia, Illinois, Ohio, Texas, California, New York, Alabama, Idaho, province of Quebec).

And there’s a lot more to this story because earlier this year, we did an interview with David Smith , the father of six kids who tragically died in that horrible fire back in January.

Winston asked to be part of that interview. Smith told us Winston was “his best friend and has been by his side through his grief.”

We bring this up because Winston was very vocal in this interview about the money and how community leaders should give this father all the money raised in his kids’ name , saying it’s not fair that they give him only what he needs as opposed to all of what he’s owed. Those are Winston’s words.

Winston is in the St. Joseph County Jail, where he is currently being held for an outside agency.