Illegal Immigrant Gang cashing stolen checks nets $80,000
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ^ | Thursday, August 25, 2005 |
State police today were alerting banks about a gang of check forgers who are operating in the state.
The gang of apparently Hispanic men has netted at least $80,000 by cashing forged or stolen payroll checks from businesses in Westmoreland and Somerset counties in recent weeks. The scam apparently began in the Norristown area in eastern Pennsylvania.
State police today said the suspects are believed to be Mexican immigrant workers who use fake drivers licenses, mostly from Ohio and Kentucky, as identification.
Last week,the gang cashed $18,643 in checks stolen from a South Huntingdon Township company. Troopers at the Belle Vernon barracks did not identify the company.
Four days earlier, thieves stole payroll checks worth more than $25,000 from GSP Marketing Inc. in Somerset County and cashed them.
In the Somerset County case, 28 men entered six branches of First National Bank within eight minutes of each other and cashed $25,545 worth of checks, state police in Somerset said.
Today, state police in Somerset reported that another instance of the scheme netted $12,756 on Friday. In that case 13 different Hispanic men entered three Somerset Trust Co. branches and cashed checks stolen from Weyand Sign Co.
Officials said the scheme also had been reported in eastern Ohio, where a Dover construction company owner said his firm was scammed out of $43,000.
Police were planning a news conference today to advise banks to carefully check identifications of immigrant workers attempting to cash checks. |
