California Man Sentenced for $447,000 Identity Theft, Bank Fraud Scheme

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A California man was sentenced in federal court today for his role in a scheme to steal tax refund checks from the mail and cash them at banks by using fake driver’s licenses.

Sharieff A. Sylvester, 27, of Moreno Valley, Calif., was sentenced by U.S. Chief District Judge Beth Phillips to three years in federal prison without parole. The court also ordered Sylvester to pay $20,416 in restitution.

On Jan. 4, 2019, Sylvester pleaded guilty to bank fraud and aggravated identity theft. In April of 2016, Sylvester and several others traveled through Colorado and Kansas into Missouri in a scheme to defraud Academy Bank using tax refund checks stolen from the mail and fake driver’s licenses. Using fraudulent identification documents, they presented the stolen checks in order to open bank accounts and withdraw funds at various branches of Academy Bank in Colorado, Kansas, and Missouri.

The conspiracy defrauded Academy Bank and the U.S. Treasury of a total of $447,517.

For example, on April 22, 2016, Sylvester used a counterfeit driver’s license to pass a stolen tax refund check at an Academy Bank branch in Parker, Colo. Sylvester presented the stolen check for $3,838 as a deposit into a newly created bank account. Sylvester then withdrew $3,808, leaving only $30 in the account.

Sylvester cashed six stolen tax refund checks in this manner, totaling $20,416. Each of these transactions was captured on bank security video, including a transaction at an Academy Bank in St. Joseph, Mo.

On April 24, 2016, police officers in Denver, Colo., recovered 19 counterfeit California driver’s licenses, including one bearing a photo of Sylvester and the name of the victim whose stolen check was passed two days earlier in Parker, from a room at the Renaissance Hotel.

Two co-defendants have pleaded guilty and await sentencing. Mistie Smith, 29, of Moreno Valley, Calif., pleaded guilty on Jan. 25, 2019, to conspiracy to commit bank fraud, bank fraud, and identity theft. Joseph R. Hooks, 26, of Bloomington, Calif., pleaded guilty on Jan. 25, 2019, to bank fraud and aggravated identity theft.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Brent Venneman. It was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, IRS-Criminal Investigation, and the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.