Cortavious Benford, Conspiracy to Commit Bank Fraud, Rhode Island 2021

A scheme to entice homeless individuals in the Providence area to cash counterfeit business checks has led to the guilty plea of Cortavious Benford, 28, of Atlanta, GA. Benford, along with three other Georgia men, recruited homeless and transient individuals to cash bogus business checks in return for cash payments.

According to charging documents, the individuals recruited by the conspirators were provided with a bogus business check in their name and driven to financial institutions in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, and elsewhere. The checks had been created by members of the conspiracy using stolen banking information of actual businesses.

Benford and a co-defendant, Michael Williams, were arrested on February 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 of the check’s proceeds. Despite the threat, once inside the bank, the man pointed out the vehicle parked outside of the bank as containing individuals who provided him with a counterfeit check.

Providence Police located the vehicle a short distance away and arrested Williams and Benford. They were in possession of $12,000 in cash. A court-authorized search of a Providence residence by Providence Police and the United States Secret Service resulted in the seizure of a computer, which had a program used to design and print checks; a printer; blank check stock; and an envelope containing stolen checks and approximately $5,000 in cash.

The investigation determined that members of the conspiracy attempted to cash approximately $677,687 worth of counterfeit checks throughout the New England region, causing losses to financial institutions of approximately $480,000.

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

The cases are being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lee H. Vilker.

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