Two Fla. men indicted in check-cashing scam with local tentacles
Two Florida men are accused of running a multi-state, fraudulent, check-cashing ring that targeted women and banks in the greater Philadelphia region, including Chester County, federal authorities said Thursday.
Brandon “Money” James, 23, and Lenardo “Lee” Nicolas, 25, were charged by indictment, a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. It is alleged that the defendants and other co-conspirators from Florida – “crew members” known and unknown to a grand jury – stole identifications, checks, bank cards, and credit cards from women’s wallets and purses, usually left inside the victims’ cars in unattended parking lots, the release said.
To carry out the scheme, the defendants and other crew members recruited female co-conspirators who could impersonate the victims, the release said. The defendants and other crew members specifically instructed the workers to use the drive-through teller lane, known to law enforcement as the “felony lane,” to cash the fraudulent checks, the release said.
The defendants carried out the alleged scheme between December 2012 and September 2013, and the banks included a Citadel Federal Credit Union branch in West Chester, the release said. The indictment charges each defendant with one count of conspiracy, two counts of bank fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft, said U.S. Attorney Zane David Memeger.
According to the indictment, James, Nicolas and other crew members rented cars for the female workers to use and usually covered the rental car’s license plate with a stolen license to conceal its identity as it passed through the bank’s drive-in lane. After a fraudulent check was successfully cashed, the workers would meet the defendants and other crew members, who waited close by to the bank in another rental vehicle, and then give them the money from the illegally cashed check. The workers would then receive another fraudulent, stolen check or checks and stolen identification to use at the next victim bank, the release said.
If convicted, James and Nicolas each face a maximum possible sentence of 67 years in prison, a $2.5 million fine, a five-year period of supervised release and a $400 special assessment, the release said.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Hatfield Township Police Department, the Willistown Township Police Department, and the Upper Uwchlan Township Police Department and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Chun Barry and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Hobart, the release said.
