{"id":264064,"date":"2026-08-12T17:26:35","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T17:26:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/264064\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T17:26:35","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T17:26:35","slug":"eight-admit-roles-in-massive-11m-stolen-check-scheme-across-nj-pennsylvania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/264064\/","title":{"rendered":"Eight Admit Roles in Massive $11M Stolen Check Scheme Across NJ, Pennsylvania"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Jersey<\/a><\/p>\n

By: Richard L. Smith\u00a0<\/p>\n

Eight defendants have admitted participating in an elaborate bank fraud conspiracy that federal prosecutors said involved more than 100 stolen government and commercial checks totaling over $11 million.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

According to U.S. Attorney Robert Frazer, the defendants pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Michael A. Shipp in Trenton federal court to conspiracy to commit bank fraud.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Federal prosecutors said the scheme operated from March 2023 through June 2025 and involved depositing stolen checks, including U.S. Treasury checks, at banks throughout New Jersey and Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Authorities said members of the conspiracy impersonated businesses and individuals whose names appeared as payees on the stolen checks.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In some instances, the defendants obtained business documents using the identities of legitimate payees and used those records to establish fraudulent bank accounts.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Once the accounts and documents were in place, prosecutors said the stolen checks were deposited and the proceeds divided among members of the conspiracy.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Federal authorities said the group deposited or attempted to deposit more than 100 Treasury and commercial checks with a combined value exceeding $11 million.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many of the Treasury checks were Employee Retention Credit refunds issued through a federal program created during the COVID-19 pandemic to encourage businesses to retain employees.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Those who pleaded guilty were Britany Brown, 39, and Patricia Kearse, 47, both of Philadelphia; Clarence Semmon, 42, and Joseph Graves-Carmichael, 43, both of Trenton; Andrew Hooper, 38, of New Brunswick; Thomas Lee, 56, of Beverly; Shabazz Rouzard, 34, of Ewing; and John Gerard Ebert, 42, of Hamilton.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The defendants entered their guilty pleas between July 21 and August 4. Their sentencing hearings are scheduled throughout December 2026.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The bank fraud conspiracy charge carries a maximum potential penalty of 30 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $1 million or potentially higher based on financial gains or losses associated with the offense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Jersey By: Richard L. Smith\u00a0 Eight defendants have admitted participating in an elaborate bank fraud conspiracy that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-264064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}