Man faces federal charges months after Acton bank fraud arrest

A man arrested in Acton last year is now facing federal charges in connection with an alleged $1.2 million bank fraud scheme. 

A grand jury indicted William Shaw, 67, on four counts each of bank fraud and aggravated identity theft. Shaw pleaded not guilty during an initial appearance last month, court records show. 

Shaw allegedly impersonated 11 different Citizens Bank customers over a more than two-year span, according to his indictment. He carried fake licenses with his photo along with actual customers’ names and birthdays, the indictment said, and used the IDs to withdraw cash from customer accounts. 

Shaw allegedly made off with more than $674,000.

Prosecutors secured a separate indictment against a Hopkinton woman who allegedly swiped upward of $536,000. 

The court appointed Acton-based attorney E. Peter Parker to represent Shaw. Parker didn’t respond to questions before publication. 

Citizens Bank also didn’t answer a Bridge inquiry as of press time.

March 2025 arrest 

Shaw’s run started in December 2022, according to the indictment. Although he allegedly posed as 11 customers, prosecutors have charged Shaw in connection with only four incidents at Acton, Abington, Brookline, and West Roxbury banks.

Shaw drew scrutiny from Citizens’ internal investigators, and the FBI was already investigating when six Acton police officers swarmed the since-relocated branch on Lowell Road in March 2025, records show.

A manager told officers that Shaw tried to deposit money orders totaling $120. The manager said he recognized Shaw from a photo in a recent corporate warning about a man visiting banks with bad checks and money orders. 

A company investigator contacted police, and officers responded while Shaw was on site, per CPD reports. 

Shaw allegedly gave Acton investigators a fake name and showed them a forged Rhode Island license. Officers found a bag of what they believed to be cocaine among his belongings while they booked him into custody, according to Officer D.J. Lordan’s filing. 

Prosecutors charged Shaw in state court but quietly dropped their case last May.

Early estimates in police reports pegged Shaw’s alleged ill-gotten gains at $243,850. His federal indictment increases that total. 

‘The same charged scheme’

Law enforcement rounded up six men last July after uncovering what prosecutors described as a multimillion-dollar bank fraud ring spanning Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. That indictment alleged that the defendants recruited people to pose as customers using fake IDs and drove them to area banks. 

One of the six men pleaded guilty last month, and prosecutors were “actively engaged in plea discussions with several other defendants” as of January 22, records show. 

Shaw’s case and the multistate accusations “arise out of the same charged scheme,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristen Kearney wrote in a recent filing.  

Authorities arrested Shaw on January 21. A magistrate judge ordered he be held by the U.S. Marshals Service until a bed becomes available at the Barbara McInnis House, a Boston medical facility for people experiencing homelessness. He’s due back in court in March.