Cory Jermaine White, Jr., a 31-year-old resident of Goodyear, Arizona, has been sentenced to 108 months in prison for his involvement in a check theft scheme. The sentencing was handed down by United States District Judge Michael T. Liburdi on July 16. White was also ordered to pay restitution amounting to $8,446,858.31 after pleading guilty to conspiracies involving bank and wire fraud, as well as money laundering.
“White stole nearly $8.5 million in checks meant for legitimate businesses and used the money for lavish expenditures,” stated U.S. Attorney Timothy Courchaine. “His actions not only impacted the victims but also undermined the integrity of our financial systems.”
FBI Phoenix Special Agent in Charge Heith Janke commented on the case: “The fact this defendant and his co-conspirators would think that stealing business checks from the U.S. Mail and scheming ways to deposit them for their own use is mind-boggling.”
The court documents revealed that White’s scheme involved multiple steps carried out with co-conspirators over several years. Initially, mail containing legitimate checks intended for businesses was stolen by one co-conspirator. Another would then create a sham entity using the same name as the intended recipient company and open a corporate bank account under this name to deposit the stolen checks.
Following these deposits, funds were quickly liquidated and distributed among those involved in the scheme.
The FBI Phoenix Division conducted the investigation into this case while Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin M. Rapp from the District of Arizona led the prosecution efforts.
