Nine Alleged Gang Members and Associates Indicted for Stealing over $94,000 in Bank Larceny Scheme
Eric Gonzalez, the acting DA of Brooklyn in collaboration with NYPD Commissioner James O’Neil made a public announcement today about 9 gang members who got charged with forged instrument’s criminal possession and grand larceny on account of stealing almost $94000 from different banks by submitting fake checks and withdrawing the amount before the detection of the forgery.
Gonzalez told that the authorities are well aware of the fact that different kinds of gang members have been using different kinds of financial frauds to pursue their lifestyles but they won’t be doing that for long and this case is an example of the fact that the authorities have a no mercy policy for such criminals.
Commissioner O’Neil added that the defendants thought they might be able to make some quick money by committing this fraud but all the got was $94,000 through fake checks which led all 9 of them to up to 7 prison years and nothing else.
The defendants were identified by the acting DA as the 23 years old resident of East Flatbush named Trumane Gibbs, 21 years old resident of Crown Heights named Michael Morris, 24 years old resident of Brownsville named Darnell Brown, 28 years old resident of Flatlands named Tevon Allen, 24 years old resident of Flatbush named Daquan Johnson, 23 years old resident of Ditmas Park named Timothy Brown, 27 years old resident of Midwood named Jeffrey Debrosse, 21 years old resident of Eastern Flatbush named Julian Hubbard and 30 years old resident of Flatbush named Jermel Belfast. Five of the nine defendants were recently arraigned by Danny Chun, the Supreme Court Justice of Brooklyn while the other four are still being sought. All the defendants are expected to get a sentence of up to 7 prison years.
Gonzalez elaborated the facts that came to light in the indictments saying that the defendants submitted 241 allegedly fake checks to 71 different bank accounts to withdraw $94000 within a two year time span between June 2014 to March 2016.
The defendants also allegedly recruited different individuals for opeining new bank accounts or for providing them with existing account’s personal information. When checks are submitted into a retail account, some of the banks pay the customer a sum of money while the checks are still being cleared by the issuing institution. The defendants took advantage of the very same thing and got their hands on all the funds that were made available by the banks before clearing out the check. Majority of the deposits were carried out at different ATM locations as revealed by the investigation.
The investigation also unraveled the fact that Morris and Gibbs are the members of a gang known as Bosses in Business, Brown and Johnson belong to Flatbush G-Stone Crips crew, Hubbard is a member of the Folk Nation gang while the other defendants also belong to similar street crews.
ADA Cooper Gorrie who belongs to DA’s cyber crimes unit is prosecuting this case with the assistance of ADA Daniel Tibbets who belongs to DA’s Frauds Bureau. Brian Selfon, the Chief Investigative Analyst of DA’s investigations Division is also assisting the investigation which is being carried out under authority of DA’s Fraud Bureau’s Chief, Felice Sontupe and Deputy Chief Dana Roth.
