Man sentenced for check cashing scheme

RUTLAND — A former Long Island, New York, man, who officials say was recruited to travel to Vermont and be part of a plan to steal checks and cash them at banks throughout Central and Southern Vermont, has been given a pass to get out of prison.

Giovanni Joseph, 34, formerly of Dix Hills, New York, received a “time-served” sentence — about two months — in U. S. District Court in Rutland on Wednesday. The sentence came after pleading guilty to a felony charge of bank fraud in Rutland. The U.S. Attorney’s office dropped nine other felonies.

Joseph tried on March 9, 2020, to pass a $115 check at the People’s United Bank in Rutland that had been altered to $775, but was rejected by the teller, a prosecutor said.

Nine days later, Lt. Jason Gravelle, a Vermont Fish and Wildlife warden, intercepted Joseph at a gas station in Hartland minutes after he was turned away from a nearby bank trying to cash a $5,780 check, records show. State Police soon arrived at the station about a quarter mile from the bank and took Joseph into custody on the forgery and identity theft charges, records show.

Court records show three New York men traveling in a black BMW were linked to a series of fraud cases in Washington, Rutland, Windsor and Windham Counties in March 2020. Letters containing checks were stolen out of large blue Postal Service mailboxes in the areas of Montpelier, Rutland and Wilmington.

So-called “fishing devices” were used to remove letters deposited in the drop boxes, according to Postal Inspector Kristin Miller. The envelopes were opened, checks removed and in most cases altered before an attempt was made to cash them, she said.

The scheme began to fall apart when Joseph attempted on March 18, 2020, to cash a check made out to Heaton Woods in Montpelier. Court records show Joseph was sent into the Mascoma Bank on U.S. 5 in Hartland with a forged identification for Heaton Woods. He apparently was unaware Heaton Woods is a well-known residential care home in Montpelier and not a live person.

Wilmington Police said they also caught the trio on March 13, 2020, one day after trying to pass a $900 check at the Community Bank. It was a rent check, but after it was stolen the name was changed to Joseph and an attempt was made to cash it, Officer Sasha Kondraski reported. The trio was found at the Viking Motel in Wilmington. A quart of acetone, which can be used to “wash” checks so they can be altered was found in their room, Miller reported.

Beside the incident in Rutland on March 9, similar complaints were received the same day from the Northfield Savings Bank in Bethel about a $900 check and North Country Federal Credit Union in Berlin about a $790 check, court records show. Video surveillance inside and outside the banks revealed the same man — later identified as Joseph — was involved in all three cases, Miller said.

After the stop in Hartland, State Police said the driver and one companion in the black BMW complained loudly that the only reason they had been stopped after trying to pass the fraudulent check was they were of color, records show. One of the troopers subsequently produced a still photograph from the attempted check passing at the nearby bank, court records show.

Joseph was subsequently found slumped down in the backseat, State Trooper Jeremy Lyon reported. Joseph had changed out of the clothes he was wearing and rolled them into a ball next to him. The check that Joseph attempted to pass was torn up and found blowing out from underneath the BMW, police said.

In both the Hartland (Windsor County) and Wilmington (Windham County) cases, Joseph was issued court citations ordering him to appear for arraignment, police said. He failed to show in White River Junction and Brattleboro each time and also failed to an agreed surrender to Miller at her Essex office for a federal warrant on Aug. 19, Assistant U.S. Attorney Spencer Willig said. Joseph broke off contact with her, but he was eventually arrested in September.

State Police Sgt. Eric Hudson, who assisted on the criminal case, said this week the other two men were never charged in state court.

Five banks and five persons or businesses were targeted as crime victims, court records show.

Chief Judge Geoffrey W. Crawford ordered Joseph to pay $2,590 in restitution to three banks which sustained losses from the fraud scheme he executed. The total of all the checks cashed or attempted was $9,145, Miller said.

The federal sentencing guidelines, which are advisory, proposed a penalty between six and 12 months, court records show.

Joseph had been detained in federal custody since his arraignment in this case on October 6, 2021.

While Joseph could have been placed under federal supervision for up to five years after his discharge from prison, no time was imposed. The move will allow Joseph to be returned to the custody of authorities in Lackawanna County, Penn. to complete a state sentence of three to six months for an unrelated narcotics offense. He will be on state probation there for three years.

Assistant Federal Defender Sara Pols waived a pre-sentence investigation, which can take a few months, in the hope of getting Joseph back to Pennsylvania quicker.

She noted that Joseph had gone to college for about two years, but stopped after family issues. Joseph became homeless and turned to drugs, she said. The two acquaintances reached out to help him get money, but were not immediately clear about the scheme they were planning in Vermont.

Willig, the prosecutor, said he agreed with the plan to get Joseph back to Pennsylvania and not have to serve any more time on the Vermont case or being under federal supervision by U.S. Probation Office.