SDNY US Attorney Damian Williams, announced that ISHMAEL BENREUBEN pled guilty on Oct. 10 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. BENREUBEN pled guilty before U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “My Office is committed to protecting the integrity of the United States banking system and the United States mail. 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.
NYPD Commissioner Edward A. Caban said: “The charges Mr. Benreuben pled guilty to today are not victimless crimes. 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.”
According to the filings and statements made in Manhattan federal court:
From approximately September 2021 through March 2022, BENREUBEN and others orchestrated an elaborate forgery and fraud scheme. In furtherance of the 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.
Upon his arrest, BENREUBEN was found hiding under a couch at a co-conspirator’s home and was in possession of numerous images of the personal identifiable information on individuals’ identification cards, debit cards, and social security cards.
BENREUBEN, 26, of Mount Vernon, New York, pled 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.
He will be sentenced by Judge Rakoff on January 10, 2024, at 4:00 p.m.
