A former employee of a check cashing store has been charged in connection with what authorities describe as a complex, multi-jurisdictional counterfeit check scheme that resulted in more than $120,000 in fraudulent checks.
Kristal Wilson, 26, of Wilkinsburg turned herself in to police on Tuesday after an arrest warrant was issued charging her with criminal conspiracy, receiving stolen property, theft by deception and other charges, according to the Allegheny County District Attorney’s office.
Ms. Wilson had been an employee at several Pittsburgh-area ACE Check Cash Express locations, according to investigators. As an ACE employee, Ms. Wilson provided legitimate business bank account numbers to counterfeiters, who used the information to create and cash fraudulent checks, according to Detective Jackelyn Weibel of the district attorney’s office.
Authorities first learned of the scheme last October, when Munhall police told Detective Weibel that counterfeit checks were being drawn from a Citizens Bank account owned by a local district court. Several fraudulent checks had been cashed at branches in the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia area for amounts ranging from $750 to more than $1,500.
Philadelphia police placed an alert on the account, and soon apprehended a man attempting to cash one of the bad checks at a local Citizens Bank. When questioned, the man stated he did not create the check. He claimed a friend asked for his driver’s license, printed a check with his name on it and asked him to cash it.
People later arrested in connection with the fraudulent check ring told a similar story. One defendant said that anyone looking to make money by cashing counterfeit checks could simply text a copy of their driver’s license. Within an hour or two, they would be picked up, handed a check in their name and driven to a local bank branch, Wal-Mart or Giant Eagle to cash it.
Participants normally received $100 per check cashed, and an additional $25 for referring their friends.
Police learned that between Oct. 15-23, the nine individuals involved in the scheme managed to cash 22 bogus checks, collecting about $24,000. An investigator for Citizens Bank told police that these checks were part of a much larger counterfeiting ring that compromised at least 30 checking accounts.
In each of these 30 accounts, a legitimate check had been cashed at a Pittsburgh-area ACE before a counterfeit check was drawn off the account.
According to an affidavit of probable cause, Ms. Wilson initially claimed that she had no knowledge of the counterfeit check-cashing scheme, or some of the individuals connected with it, including Rodney Zellers, 32, of Philadelphia. Mr. Zellers was charged previously in the scheme.
Detective Weibel obtained a jail phone call recording of Mr. Zellers speaking with an unknown woman identified as his girlfriend. During the conversation, Mr. Zellers mentioned the name “Kristal” multiple times in the context that she was a woman he knew in Pittsburgh.
Detective Weibel also discovered 27 checks that had been legitimately cashed, then counterfeit checks were drawn on the same accounts. In 26 of the 27 instances, Ms. Wilson had worked within 48 hours at the location where the bogus check had been cashed.
Madeline Kennedy: madelinekennedy@post-gazette.com
First Published: July 7, 2016, 4:31 a.m.
