Sauntore Thomas, a 44-year-old Black man from Detroit and an Air Force veteran, walked into a TCF Bank branch in Livonia, Michigan, with settlement checks in hand. He had just resolved a racial discrimination lawsuit against his former employer after seven months. He reportedly asked to open a savings account so he could deposit the checks, which totaled $99,000.
According to NBC News, the assistant branch manager immediately appeared suspicious of him, a lawsuit he later filed in Wayne County Circuit Court alleged. She asked how he got the money and said the checks would need to be verified. She told him the bank’s computer system for checking them was not working and that she would go in the back to call in the checks.
