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Serial Fraudster Sentenced to 10 Years in Federal Prison
Baltimore, Maryland – U.S. District Judge Ellen L. Hollander sentenced Monika Michelle Hill, age 36, of Baltimore and Cockeysville, Maryland, to 10 years in prison, followed by five years of supervised release, for two separate fraud schemes, including conspiracy to commit bank fraud and wire fraud.
The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Brian Murphy of the United States Secret Service – Baltimore Field Office; and Chief James W. Johnson of the Baltimore County Police Department.
According to her plea agreement, between March 2013 and July 2014, Hill, was the leader of a scheme in which the defendants deposited counterfeit checks, drawn on the accounts of identity theft victims, into bank accounts opened by the defendants in the name of shell companies. The defendants then withdrew the funds before the fraud could be detected.
Hill conspired with co-defendants Alysia Rascoe, Vance McKoy, Mark Peeples, Dorian Griffin and others to open 22 business bank accounts online, using the personal identifying information of identity theft victims. The bank accounts were funded using forged checks bearing the bank account numbers and forged signatures of other identity theft victims.
For example, Grant U Pleasure, LLC and Kersey’s Recovery, LLC were registered with the State of Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation as businesses on March 12, 2014 and May 19, 2014, respectively. The businesses each listed an identity theft victim as the managing member/owner, and used that person’s social security number and date of birth to open online bank accounts for the business.
The loss to the bank as a result of the scheme was $179,808.76, the amount actually withdrawn. The intended loss was $233,190.02, the total amount of the counterfeit checks deposited. Judge Hollander also ordered Hill to pay restitution of $199,318 for the 2015 bank fraud case, and restitution of $105,899.16 in the 2013 wire fraud case.
Key Facts
- State: Maryland
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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