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May 22, 2018

Three Individuals Indicted for Their Roles in Scheme Involving Stolen Federal Tax Refund Checks

On March 22, 2018, in the Southern District of New York, Oswaldo Morel-Garden, Gerson Cabrera, and Geuris Rosario were indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and bank fraud. Morel-Garden and Rosario were also charged with aggravated identity theft.1

According to court documents, from at least about December 2016 up to and including about November 2017, the coconspirators knowingly and willfully executed their scheme to defraud numerous financial institutions by opening bank accounts in names other than their own with institutions insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. They subsequently deposited falsely endorsed checks, including altered, fictitious, and stolen U.S. Treasury tax refund checks, into the accounts. They did so with the intent to use false and fraudulent pretenses to obtain funds from the accounts to which they were not entitled. U.S. Department of the Treasury records indicate that several refund checks were not received by victims. One of the checks, which had been deposited by Rosario into a fraudulently opened account, was subsequently reissued by the U.S. Treasury Department.2

While engaged in their fraudulent activity, Morel-Garden and Rosario also knowingly transferred, possessed, and used without lawful authority a means of identification of another person. According to the criminal complaint, it is estimated that the coconspirators opened approximately 29 bank accounts as part of their scheme, into which they deposited approximately $184,461.58 worth of checks that belonged to others.3

If convicted, the coconspirators could face a maximum statutory sentence of 30 years' imprisonment related to the bank fraud charges and an additional mandatory sentence of two years' imprisonment related to the aggravated identity-theft charges. They are also ordered to forfeit any and all proceeds fraudulently derived from their offenses.4 Additional legal actions are anticipated.

    1 S.D.N.Y. Indict. filed. Mar. 22, 2018.
    2 S.D.N.Y. Crim. Compl. filed Feb. 15, 2018.
    3 Id.
    4 S.D.N.Y. Indict. filed. Mar. 22, 2018.