Johnston Man Sentenced For Using Fake Checks To Defraud Banks

JOHNSTON, RI — A Johnston man was sentenced to 16 months in federal prison Monday after he admitted to running a counterfeit check scheme to defraud banks.

Nestor Concepcion, 26, pleaded guilty on Jan. 21 to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and three counts of bank fraud.

Concepcion recruited people to deposit counterfeit checks into their bank accounts and then withdrew the money to defraud banks. According to court documents, the scheme began in October 2020.

Concepcion was already on probation, following a bank fraud conviction in 2019. In 2019, he ran a similar scheme and defrauded banks out of nearly $72,000.

In addition to the prison sentence, Concepcion was also ordered to pay $33,635 in restitution, representing the amount of money banks lost in his most recent scheme.