U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia — Three men have been sentenced to prison for their involvement in a conspiracy that involved stealing checks, altering them, and fraudulently claiming pandemic relief benefits. The scheme, which ran from May 2020 through January 2022, led to significant financial losses.
Deandre Merritt, 29, of Hyattsville, Maryland, is said to have coordinated the illegal operations, which included cashing stolen or altered checks and making fraudulent claims for pandemic-related relief programs using stolen identities. Merritt, along with at least one accomplice, obtained USPS arrow keys—tools used by mail carriers to access collection boxes—and stole checks from these boxes.
The stolen checks were altered or used to create new fraudulent checks, with payee names, addresses, and account numbers being falsified. Merritt worked with a bank teller to verify whether checks could be cashed and directed co-conspirators, including Sylvester E. Hawkins II, 31, of Buffalo, New York, and Trevon Thompson, 23, of La Plata, Maryland, to cash them. The conspirators used fake IDs—driver’s licenses and passports—with stolen names to open bank accounts, secure credit cards, and apply for loans, including a fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan worth $20,833.
Merritt, Hawkins, and Thompson also applied for unemployment insurance benefits and other pandemic relief programs intended to assist those affected by COVID-19. The combined efforts of the group led to a bank fraud conspiracy loss of at least $575,579, while the wire fraud related to pandemic relief programs caused a loss of at least $506,308.
These fraudulent actions have resulted in substantial financial harm, and the sentences handed down reflect the severity of the crimes.