A Waterville man has been charged in connection with kidnapping and robbery schemes at three Tennessee banks, according to an indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Knoxville.
Brian Witham, 45, of Waterville and Michael Benanti, 43, of Lake Harmony, Pennsylvania, were indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury on 15 counts.
The men were arrested on Nov. 25 in Buncombe County, North Carolina, by the North Carolina State Highway Patrol, in conjunction with the Maggie Valley Police Department, the Haywood County Sheriff’s Office and the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office, after a vehicle pursuit, according to information posted on the FBI’s Knoxville office website.
The duo are accused of taking hostage bank executives and members of their families from two different Knoxville-area banks in April and July, the indictment said. Witham and Benanti also allegedly executed a similar scheme in October in Elizabethton, Tennessee, located about 110 miles east of Knoxville.
In all three incidents, the men are accused of going to the home of a bank executive, kidnapping family members at gunpoint and forcing them to go to the bank in a family car.
The family members and executives were released unharmed, according to the Knoxville New Sentinel.
Information about how much money was taken was not included in court documents or reported by the Knoxville newspaper.