A man from Bronx, New York, has been sentenced in Rhode Island for his involvement in a bank fraud conspiracy. Acting United States Attorney Sara Miron Bloom announced that Paul Keenan, 54, was sentenced to 24 months of incarceration followed by three years of supervised release. The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Court Chief Judge John J. McConnell, Jr.
Keenan was charged and arrested in August 2024 and pleaded guilty in February to conspiracy to commit bank fraud. Court documents revealed that Keenan recruited individuals and obtained their personal identifying information (PII) to create fraudulent IDs with the help of co-conspirators.
The scheme involved obtaining PII from at least 28 individuals and information from at least 20 business entities. This data was used to create fake IDs and checks, which were then used by members of the conspiracy who traveled with recruits to banks across ten states, including Rhode Island and Massachusetts, to cash counterfeit checks.
The conspirators attempted to defraud banks of approximately $143,000 and succeeded in defrauding twenty-two banks out of about $93,200.
Assistant United States Attorney Christine Lowell prosecuted the case with assistance from Assistant United States Attorney Sandra Hebert. The investigation was conducted by Homeland Security Investigations and the East Providence Police Department, with support from the Portsmouth Police Department.
