A Pennsylvania man was sentenced to 24 months in prison by U.S. District Court Judge Bridget Meehan Brennan after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud, according to the Department of Justice.
According to officials, Marquise A. Billy, 31, of Long Pond, was also sentenced to five years of supervised release following his detention. He was also sentenced to pay restitution of $107,800.
According to court documents, Billy worked with a co-conspirator, Rodney A. Martin, 62, of the Bronx, New York, to carry out a criminal conspiracy to locate banks where they could cash forged checks. On Oct. 12, 2022, the two flew from New York to Ohio. After arriving in Columbus, Billy leased a car, and the two drove across the state cashing fake checks at banks they had pre-selected to target.
According to officials, Billy furnished Martin with 14 phony United States passport identity cards to use as ID when cashing checks. Martin went through the IDs, using a different one for each bank transaction. Martin used this method to fraudulently cash checks ranging from $4,500 to $5,500 at multiple financial institutions.
According to the agency, police uncovered during the investigation that the defendants had made repeated journeys to Ohio and other locations to carry out their bank fraud plot.
The two men went to 21 banks, where Martin cashed bogus checks using the phony IDs Billy provided. The banks targeted in the Northern District of Ohio were in the counties of Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Geauga, Portage, Trumbull, and Wayne. Billy and Martin stole a total of $107,800 from various community banks.
Martin pleaded guilty to conspiracy to conduct bank fraud and aggravated identity theft, and U.S. District Court Judge John R. Adams sentenced him to 30 months in prison and five years of supervised release on February 6, 2024.
According to the department, the matter was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations at US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Social Security Administration-Office of the Inspector General, the Geauga County Sheriff’s Office, and the New York City Police Department.
Special Assistant United States Attorney Jason W. White prosecuted the case in the Northern District of Ohio.
