Westchester Man Guilty In Elaborate Check Fraud Scheme

MOUNT VERNON, NY — A Mount Vernon man behind a massive check fraud scheme has reached a plea deal with the feds.

Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Patrick J. Freaney, the Special Agent in Charge of the NY Field Office of the U.S. Secret Service, and Edward A. Caban, the Commissioner of the NYPD, announced that Ishmael Benreuben pled guilty on Tuesday to participating in a conspiracy to deposit approximately $760,000 in fraudulent checks into bank accounts across New York, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C., and to fraudulently withdrawing approximately $115,000 from those accounts.

"My Office is committed to protecting the integrity of the United States banking system and the United States mail," Williams said announcing the plea. "The defendant engaged in a scheme to steal three quarters of a million dollars by stealing real checks from the mail, forging the checks, falsifying identities, and taking advantage of multiple financial institutions. The defendant’s fraudulent scheme affected real people and their businesses. Today, he has been held accountable for his brazen conduct."

From approximately September 2021 through March 2022, Benreuben and other conspirators orchestrated an elaborate forgery and fraud scheme. Benreuben stole checks from the mail, forged and altered the stolen checks, deposited the checks into bank accounts across New York, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C. belonging to 26 co-conspirators, and then rapidly withdrew the funds before the banks could void the checks or shut down the accounts. The checks ranged in amounts from approximately $5,000 to $42,000 and were drawn from the accounts of real businesses and individuals throughout the Northeast. In total, Benreuben and his co-conspirators deposited approximately $760,000 in fraudulent checks and withdrew approximately $115,000 before the banks shut down the affected accounts.

"[Benreuben] committed malicious fraud for his own personal gain," Special Agent in Charge Freaney said. "With today’s guilty plea, he can no longer endanger the community. This case should serve as a strong deterrent for criminal actors considering taking part in similar fraud schemes."

When he was arrested, Benreuben was found hiding under a couch at a co-conspirator’s home and was in possession of images of the personal identifiable information on individuals’ identification cards, debit cards, and social security cards.

"The charges Mr. Benreuben pled guilty to today are not victimless crimes," Commissioner Caban said. "In addition to compromising the integrity of our nation’s mail system, these offenses harm the people whose mail is stolen and the public at large."

The 26-year-old pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison; one count of bank fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison; and one count of aggravated identity theft, which carries a mandatory prison term of two years, which must run consecutively to any other prison term.