RICHMOND, Va. - A Richmond man was sentenced today to over five years in prison for conspiring to defraud several banks and identity theft.
According to court documents, Troy Murchison, 23, conspired with several others for more than three-and-a-half years to defraud at least five different banks by depositing counterfeit payroll checks and other worthless financial instruments into dozens of compromised bank accounts and then quickly withdrawing the credited funds. Murchison used social media to recruit at least 40 accountholders of different financial institutions to provide their debit cards and PINs in exchange for promised payment. Murchison then created counterfeit payroll checks purportedly issued by more than a dozen local businesses, which he and others acting on his instruction then deposited into the compromised accounts.
These deposits fraudulently induced the targeted financial institutions to credit thousands of dollars to those accounts, which Murchison and others immediately withdrew. Between 2014 and 2017, Murchison and others deposited over 100 worthless checks and money orders totaling more than $95,000 into at least 40 compromised accounts and successfully withdrew nearly $40,000 of the credited proceeds. During that same period, Murchison was charged in three separate state cases for conduct related to this conspiracy. Murchison was on probation, awaiting trial, and a fugitive in these cases when he was ultimately arrested in November 2017.
G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Peter R. Rendina, Inspector in Charge of the Washington Division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, made the announcement after sentencing by Senior U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kaitlin G. Cooke prosecuted the case.
A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Related court documents and information are located on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 3:18-cr-122.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
