BIRMINGHAM - A federal grand jury on Wednesday indicted a Georgia man in connection with a counterfeit check and stolen identity scheme in north Alabama in late 2014, announced U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance and U.S. Postal Inspector Frank Dyer.
A four-count indictment filed in U.S. District Court charges CAMERON MICHAEL MORAN, 29, of Rome, Ga., with two counts each of bank fraud and aggravated identity theft.
According to the indictment, Moran was aided by others not named in the indictment in a scheme to defraud BBVA Compass Bank of more than $18,000. Moran would obtain a stolen business check or a counterfeit check, forge the original check-maker’s signature on the counterfeit check and/or change the name of the payee on the stolen check, according to the charges. He then cashed those checks for his personal use.
Between Nov. 25 and 26, 2014, Moran cashed a $9,673 counterfeit check bearing a forged signature and drawn on the account of Transportation Services Inc. at a BBVA Compass Bank in Huntsville, the indictment charges. Moran also cashed a second counterfeit check on the Transportation Services account, in the amount of $8,946 and bearing a forged signature, at a BBVA Compass Bank in Madison, according to the indictment.
Moran is charged with aggravated identity theft on each check transaction for forging the name and using the associated account numbers of a Transportation Services employee as part of the charged bank fraud.
The maximum penalty for bank fraud is 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine. Aggravated identity theft carries a minimum two-year prison sentence that must be served after completion of any sentence imposed for the underlying crime, and a maximum $250,000 fine.
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigated the case, which Assistant U.S. Attorney David H. Estes is prosecuting.
An indictment contains only charges. A defendant is considered innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
