Authorities probe bigger scam after Georgia pair, Erie man nabbed in check cashing try
In early 2018, a series of checks stolen from businesses around Erie County began showing up at local banks.
The checks were altered and made out for a few thousand dollars, and each was presented to tellers for cashing by a person with valid identification.
The scam was similar to one authorities said had been perpetrated throughout the country, which many law enforcement agencies dubbed, "Operation Homeless" for its use of homeless people in cashing the altered checks.
Locally, it would launch an investigation involving local, state and federal authorities that would lead them to charge two Georgia residents with orchestrating a scam that utilized several homeless people as check-cashers and netted tens of thousands of dollars.
Authorities are now wondering if they have a similar crime spree on their hands.
The Millcreek Township Police Department late Friday afternoon apprehended three people after an attempt was made to cash a stolen business check at an Andover Bank branch. One of the suspects would tell police that the group had traveled to other banks in Pennsylvania and Ohio to attempt to cash similar checks.
The Pennsylvania State Police has received reports of stolen business checks, stolen checks being cashed and attempts being made to cash stolen checks in other parts of Erie County, the agency reported Tuesday. Troopers based in Girard are working to determine if the incidents are possibly connected to the Andover Bank incident, according to state police.
Apprehension in Millcreek
Charged in the investigation so far are Jeremy C. Ivory, no age available, of McDonough, Georgia; Jemal D. Strozier, 30, of Stone Mountain, Georgia; and Jamie A. Thomas, 28, of Erie. Each was arraigned Saturday on felony counts of forgery and receiving stolen property and on a misdemeanor count of tampering with records in the Millcreek police investigation into the incident at Andover Bank.
Ivory and Strozier had their bonds set at $50,000. Thomas was held on $25,000 bond.
Millcreek police accuse the trio of attempting to cash a check, stolen from an Edinboro-area business last week, that was altered and presented late Friday afternoon at the Andover Bank branch at 2420 Zimmerly Road for $3,500. The bank did not cash the check and police were alerted about the attempt, according to investigators and information in the criminal complaints filed in the case.
Millcreek police were given a description of the person who attempted to cash the check and received information that a vehicle involved was possibly a black minivan that might be parked behind a nearby Country Fair. A responding Millcreek police officer spotted a black Chrysler Pacifica behind the County Fair with two people inside who appeared to be ducking down, according to information in the affidavits filed with the complaints.
The officer stopped in front of the Chrysler and noticed a third person inside the vehicle. All three denied being involved in the attempted check cashing, the officer wrote in the affidavits.
Police said they obtained a photo of the person who attempted to cash the check and identified the rear seat passenger of the Chrysler Pacifica as that person. Police spoke to the person and recovered the check, which was made out to Jamie Thomas, according to the affidavits.
Investigators said Thomas told them he was picked up by the other two males about a week ago and they went to several banks in Ohio and Pennsylvania to attempt to cash fraudulent checks.
According to the affidavits, the check that was attempted to be cashed at Andover Bank on Friday afternoon was taken from a local trucking company on March 22. An employee said the check had been made out to the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue and was placed in the business's mailbox when it was stolen and altered, police wrote in the affidavits.
Millcreek police impounded the Chrysler Pacifica and said they plan to search it as part of the ongoing investigation.
Millcreek police said Monday they and other local law enforcement agencies are working to see if any other stolen and altered business checks were cashed or were attempted to be cashed at area banks in recent days. State police reported on Tuesday that they are investigating a number of similar reports about stolen business checks and attempts to cash those checks, and have been in contact with Millcreek police.
Anyone with information related to the investigation is asked to call state police in Girard at 814-774-9611.
A similar scam
The incident that Ivory, Strozier and Thomas are accused of committing at Andover Bank in Millcreek is similar to a check-forging spree that state and local police accused two Georgia residents of perpetrating around Erie County in early 2018. In those cases, investigators accused Georgia residents Victor Lemmons and Jasmine Carter of employing others to cash checks that were stolen from local businesses and altered at several banks in the county.
More: Georgia pair nabbed in check scam probe
That case was cracked when police tracked down a homeless man who was hired to cash the checks, and he set up a meeting with Lemmons and Carter in Erie in late February 2018. Erie police and the Pennsylvania State Police went to the meeting location and took the pair into custody.
A federal grand jury in 2019 indicted Lemmons and Carter in the check-cashing scam. Each faced one count of conspiracy and six counts of bank fraud in U.S. District Court in Erie.
More: Check-cashing scam that relied on homeless in Erie, elsewhere nets 4-year federal sentence
Each was sentenced in 2020. Lemmons received three years and 10 months to four years and nine months in prison. Carter was sentenced to 3½ years in prison.
Contact Tim Hahn at thahn@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNhahn.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Police probe bigger scam after 3 charged in stolen check-cashing try
