11 From NJ Swindled Victims With Fake Stimulus Checks: Feds

Anthony Bellano
Updated ·3 min read

NEW JERSEY – A suspicious social media post resulted in 14 people — including 11 from New Jersey — being busted in a national scheme in which they swindled banks and individuals out of hundreds of thousands of dollars using counterfeit stimulus checks, authorities announced on Friday.

Eight people have been arrested and six people remain at-large, according to U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito. The conspirators hail from various parts of New Jersey, Philadelphia, and Virginia Beach. (See list below).

It began when investigators noticed an Instagram “story” from 23-year-old Kassan Knight, of Newark, in which he wrote, “All OA instant"4 (with an arrow pointed to a phone emoji)" followed by a video referencing "bread5" while standing at a drive-thru bank ATM lot with another person, according to documents filed in the case. He tagged 23-year-old Justin Ezeiruaku, of Berlin, in the story, which was posted in May.

Knight then posted a picture of a $4,210 receipt drawn off a Bank of America account at an ATM in the Hilton Hotel in Maplewood, authorities said.

Ultimately, investigators followed the trail and learned that a total of 164 counterfeit checks were deposited into 51 Bank of America accounts, costing that institution about $213,000, authorities said.

The conspirators had obtained the money after posting advertisements to Instagram and Snapchat offering people the chance to make “quick cash” if they banked at certain institutions, according to authorities.

They obtained debit card, account information, and PINs from those who were both unwitting victims and those who willingly participated in the scheme.

The account holders came from 10 different states, including New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maryland, California, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas, and South Carolina.

They then used this information to deposit Economic Impact Checks into accounts at various institutions, including Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Capital One, according to authorities.

Economic Impact Checks were issued by the U.S. Department of the Treasury as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. These fraudulent checks had numbers associated with actual checks issued by the treasury.

They were deposited in the spring, authorities said. Before those institutions could discover the funds were counterfeit, the conspirators used the debit cards to withdraw money from the institutions, authorities said.

A check for $4,210 was deposited on April 17, and is still outstanding. Checks for $1,200 each were deposited on April 24 and 28. The money from these checks were completely withdrawn by April 27 and 30, respectively, according to authorities.

In addition to Knight and Ezeiruaku, the following people have been charged by complaint with conspiracy to commit bank fraud:

  • Torri Pedro, 24 of Sicklerville;

  • Akume Ehoggi, 25 of Glassboro;

  • Nakirah Matthews, 21 of Paulsboro;

  • Qwan Taylor, 22 of Pennsauken;

  • Kwaeson Watts, 24 of Lindenwold;

  • Nasir Johnson, 23 of Newark;

  • Daeson Monroe, 25 of Philadelphia;

  • Daron Curry, 24 of Westville;

  • Talib Crump, 26 of Philadelphia;

  • Noah Brent-Magri, 21 of Somerset;

  • Isaiah White, 23 of Virginia Beach; and

  • Ali Shoultz, 23 of Clementon.

Knight, Pedro, Shoultz, Matthews and Curry made their initial appearances on Thursday. Ezeiruako will make his appearance on Monday. Crump is in custody in Philadelphia. White was arrested in Virginia and will have an initial appearance at a date to be determined. Ehoggi, Taylor, Watts, Johnson, Monroe and Magri all remain at-large.

This article originally appeared on the Gloucester Township Patch