Fresno County Residents Arrested in Arizona Sting Over $600,000 Bank Fraud

Two Fresno County residents were arrested in Payson, Arizona on Feb. 12, 2026 after authorities said the suspects traveled there to collect money from victims they had targeted, and local law-enforcement partners made the arrests as part of an ongoing multi-jurisdictional investigation, a local report stated.

Separately, an FBI press release identifies the arrestees as "Former bank manager Sylvia Ochoa, 33, and Shanne Leavell, 23, both of Orange Cove," and says they "were arrested today for an embezzlement scheme that defrauded the Bank of America of over $600,000, United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced." The FBI release states a federal grand jury returned a six-count indictment on August 27, 2015 charging Ochoa with conspiracy to commit bank fraud, bank fraud, and embezzlement by a bank manager, and charging Leavell with conspiracy to commit bank fraud and bank fraud. The release names Assistant United States Attorney Mia A. Giacomazzi as prosecuting and attributes the investigation to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Fresno Police Department.

The two reporting threads contain a timing and linkage discrepancy: the Payson arrest report gives a Feb. 12, 2026 arrest date and says local partners made the arrest in Payson, while the FBI release uses the phrase "were arrested today" and references an indictment returned Aug. 27, 2015. The reports share overlapping geography and fraud-related subject matter but do not explicitly tie the Feb. 12 Payson arrests to the Aug. 27, 2015 six-count indictment in the supplied excerpts. The FBI material explicitly lists the FBI and Fresno Police Department as investigators; the Payson arrest account describes those who made the arrests only as "local law-enforcement partners."

The FBI release describes Ochoa as a former bank manager and alleges the scheme defrauded Bank of America of "over $600,000." It also sets out potential penalties: "If convicted, Ochoa and Leavell face a maximum statutory penalty of 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine." The release includes the standard admonition that "The charges are only allegations; the defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt."

Federal law enforcement activity out of Fresno has included other large prosecutions in recent years. A separate Operation Silver Shores telemarketing probe was reported to have identified "more than 372 victims nationwide, with losses exceeding $30 million" and followed a Fresno-based grand jury indictment charging more than 20 people with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering, local reports said. An ICE HSI multiagency probe tied to alleged gang drug and weapons trafficking in Fresno named 29 defendants and listed dozens of local residents by name, with a 10-month investigation that the agency said linked sales of methamphetamine, cocaine, and firearms between January and August 2017.

Assistant United States Attorney Mia A. Giacomazzi is prosecuting the federal case named in the FBI release, and the release notes that any sentence "would be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines." Federal court filings and formal charging documents will determine the next steps and official arraignment dates.