FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 8, 2009
WWW.USDOJ.GOV/USAO/MA
CONTACT: CHRISTINA DiIORIO-STERLING
PHONE: (617)748-3356
E-MAIL: USAMA.MEDIA@USDOJ.GOV
MAN SENTENCED FOR FRAUDULENT CHECK SCHEME
Boston, MA... A Massachusetts man was sentenced late Friday afternoon in federal court with engaging in a fraudulent check scheme in which he and another Massachusetts man deposited forged, counterfeit and altered checks into accounts at various local banks and wired the proceeds overseas.
Acting United States Attorney Michael K. Loucks, Warren T. Bamford, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation - Boston Field Divisin and Susan Dukes, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation Bureau, Boston Field Office announced today that Honorable Douglas P. Woodlock sentenced LENARD G. CHRISTI, age 69, of Newtonville, Massachusetts, to 46 months imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release and restitution in the amount of $306,060 following his conviction last February on charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, bank fraud and engaging in monetary transactions in proceeds of specified unlawful activities.
CHRISTI was convicted for his role in a fraud scheme between October 2000 and April 2003, through which CHRISTI, and a co-defendant Robert Felleman, defrauded various local banks, including Fleet Bank, (now Bank of America), Citizens Bank and Eagle Bank. The evidence at trial showed that in October 2000, Felleman and CHRISTI attempted to negotiate two counterfeit checks through a Fleet account controlled by Felleman. Although Fleet suffered no loss at that time, Felleman and CHRISTI did succeed in defrauding Fleet bank of approximately $300,000 in July 2001, by depositing an altered check for approximately $320,000 and dissipating most of the proceeds before Fleet was notified that the check was altered. Felleman and CHRISTI wired approximately $220,000 to Taiwan and then made a series of cash withdrawals totaling in excess of $80,000.
About three months after the Fleet Bank incident, CHRISTI and Felleman deposited a forged check for $350,000 into a Citizens Bank account controlled by Felleman. In April 2003, CHRISTI deposited an altered check for $78,100 into an account at Eagle Bank that Felleman and he controlled. CHRISTI wired most of the funds to an account at a bank in London, United Kingdom, but Eagle Bank discovered that the check was fraudulent in time to retrieve the wire from London.
In 2007, CHRISTI’s co-defendant, Felleman, pled guilty to conspiracy, wire fraud and bank fraud and is currently serving a 30 month sentence.
The case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service and Federal Bureau of Investigation. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jack W. Pirozzolo of Loucks’ Economic Crimes Unit.
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