A member of the South Los Angeles-based Crips street gang was sentenced on July 16 to 108 months in federal prison for his involvement in a $2.8 million bank fraud scheme that used stolen checks and Instagram to recruit accomplices.
Chase Matthew Griffin, also known as “Trey,” age 26, of Atlanta, who previously lived in Ontario and South Los Angeles, received the sentence from United States District Judge Josephine L. Staton. Griffin was also ordered to pay $307,386 in restitution. He pleaded guilty on March 5 to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and has been held in federal custody since September 2025.
According to court documents, from 2022 through September 2025, Griffin participated in a conspiracy involving the theft of checks from mailboxes. The checks were altered or counterfeited so they appeared payable to his accomplices. Griffin recruited these individuals online—often via Instagram—by posting images showing large amounts of cash and soliciting holders of various bank accounts for access.
After recruiting an accomplice, Griffin and others deposited fraudulent checks into their accounts and quickly withdrew funds before banks could detect the activity. In one example from December 2023, a North Hollywood business reported three stolen checks totaling about $84,490 that were mailed from a United States Postal Service collection box but ended up deposited into unrelated JPMorgan Chase accounts with changed payee information.
A law enforcement review found additional fraudulent deposits linked to the same account and traced ATM withdrawals, electronic payments through Zelle and CashApp, airline ticket purchases, and casino transactions back to Griffin. The United States Postal Inspection Service led the investigation with help from Upland Police Department; Assistant United States Attorney Andrew Brown prosecuted the case.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California serves more than 19 million residents across seven counties; it focuses on prosecuting federal criminal cases while working with law enforcement partners on public safety initiatives, according to its official website.