Brownsville Man Charged In Massive Check Forgery Scheme

BROOKLYN, NY — A Brownsville man was charged along with eight other Brooklyn gang members in connection with a massive forgery scheme in which they stole over $94,000 from banks by depositing counterfeit checks and withdrawing the funds before forgery was detected, the Brooklyn District Attorney's office announced Thursday.

Darnell Brown, 24, was charged with grand larceny and criminal possession of a forged instrument, and he faces up to seven years in prison, according to the Brooklyn DA.

Between June 2014 and March 2016, Brown and the eight other defendants deposited 241 allegedly counterfeit checks into 71 bank accounts and made withdrawals at ATMs throughout NYC, the Brooklyn DA's office said. The crew allegedly recruited new people to open new accounts or provide them with personal information of existing accounts at Bank of America, TD Bank, Capital One and JP Morgan Chase. This is because when customers deposit checks into retail accounts, banks make a certain amount of money available to customers even though the checks haven't cleared, according to the Brooklyn DA.

Brown was found to be a member of the Flatbush G-Stone Crips gang. Other defendants were found to be part of the 8-Tray Crips gang called Bosses in Business and the Folk Nation gang, among other gangs.

"We now know that gang members are increasingly using financial fraud to pay for their lifestyle – like they allegedly did in the simple yet very lucrative scheme charged in these indictments," said Acting Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez. "We will continue to investigate and prosecute this facet of gang activity to get dangerous individuals off the streets and make sure stolen money isn’t used to fund violent acts."

"The defendants in this case thought they could make a quick buck with some bad checks," said NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill. "But when you look at the balance sheet—with 241 counterfeit checks and $94,000 in illegal proceeds– you see for these nine defendants, who face up to seven years in prison, that crime doesn’t pay."

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