Man Admits To Using RI Homeless People To Cash Fake Checks

PROVIDENCE, RI — A fourth Georgia man admitted in federal court to taking advantage of homeless people in Rhode Island by hiring them to participate in a fake check-cashing scheme.

Cortavious Benford, 28, of Atlanta, Goergia, pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy to commit bank fraud, said U.S. Attorney Zachary Cunha. Three other Goergia men previously pleaded guilty for the same scheme: Austin Weaver, 26, of Decatur, Jalen Ronald Stanford, 28, of East Point, and Michael Williams, 27, of East Point.

According to the Department of Justice, the men ran the scheme from October 2018 to February 2021, recruiting homeless people in the Providence area to cash hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of counterfeit business checks in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine and Connecticut, in exchange for cash payments.

Many of the people were arrested at banks while trying to cash the fake checks. Once the checks were cashed, the men would pay the homeless people between $100 and $200 each, prosecutors said.

Williams and Benford were arrested on Feb. 5, 2021, after they recruited and drove a homeless person to a Providence bank. They threatened to injure him if he failed to provide them with all the check's proceeds, prosecutors said.

Despite the threat, once inside the bank, the man pointed to Williams and Benford's vehicle in the parking lot. Providence police found the vehicle arrested Williams and Benford, and seized $12,000 in cash, prosecutors said.

Police then got a search warrant and searched a Providence, seizing a computer, which had a program used to design and print checks, a printer, blank check stock and an envelope containing stolen checks and about $5,000 in cash. Several completed fraudulent checks were found on the computer, prosecutors said.

Stanford was arrested on Feb. 25, 2021, and Weaver was arrested on March 3, 2021. According to prosecutors, the men cashed more than $677,000 worth of counterfeit checks throughout New England.

Benford, Weaver and Stanford are awaiting sentencing. Williams was sentenced by U.S. District Chief Judge John J. McConnell, Jr., on Feb. 16, 2022, to 41 months in federal prison to be followed by 3 years of federal supervised release.