Press Release

Over $200,000 worth of counterfeit checks cashed in Utah in 2022

Salt Lake City, Utah - A Georgia man pleaded guilty today to multiple federal crimes after he admitted to engaging in a check fraud scheme to defraud several federally insured financial institutions in the District of Utah.

Toddorius Goodwin, 34, of Lithonia, Georgia, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and aggravated identity fraud.

According to court documents and admissions made during Goodwin's change of plea hearing, Goodwin and his associates traveled from Georgia to engage in a check fraud scheme in Utah and elsewhere. They recruited impoverished individuals locally to assist with their scheme. Goodwin and his associates stole payroll checks from private mailboxes, altered the "payable to" names on the checks to the recruited individual's name, and sent that individual into various banks to cash the forged checks in exchange for a cut of the profit. Goodwin and his associates successfully cashed at least $214,179.51 worth of counterfeit checks in Utah within just a few months, from April to October 2022.

Goodwin is scheduled to be sentenced November 7, 2024, at 1:30 p.m. in courtroom 3.4. before a U.S. District Court Judge at the Orrin G. Hatch United States District Courthouse in downtown Salt Lake City.

U.S. Attorney, Trina A. Higgins, of the District of Utah made the announcement.

The case is being investigated by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Special Assistant United States Attorney Sachi Jepson of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Utah is prosecuting the case.

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Updated August 29, 2024