Check Fraud Involving Mailboxes Leads To Woodbridge Man's Guilty Plea

WOODBRIDGE, VA — A Woodbridge man's role in a stolen check from mailboxes scheme led to a guilty plea in federal court last Thursday.

According to federal prosecutors, Jason Banks, 27 of Woodbridge, was part of a scheme from August 2021 to July 2022. The scheme involved cashing or depositing fraudulent checks with at least 25 victims. A co-conspirator had taken a U.S. Postal Service arrow key, which employees use to unlock collection boxes, apartment panels and parcel lockers. That allowed co-conspirators to steal mail, much of which contained checks. Some of the victims faced identity theft.

To fraudulently cash or deposit the checks, co-conspirators altered the stolen checks or used the information to create new fraudulent checks. According to prosecutors, Banks recruited at least four account holders who would share their bank account, PIN, and personally identifying information with him. He shared that information with another co-conspirator, who supplied fraudulent paper checks to Banks or the account holders for deposit into their accounts. In other cases, a co-conspirator would electronically deposit checks into account holders' accounts.

Once funds were deposited, Banks transferred funds to himself, took a percentage and sent the remainder to co-conspirators. The estimated loss from the fraud scheme was $501,096.15.

Banks pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud. He will be sentenced on Aug. 28 and faces up to 30 years in prison.