A member of a South L.A. street gang was sentenced Thursday to nine years behind bars for his role in a $2.8 million scheme in which he stole checks from the mail, altered them, then used Instagram to recruit account holders to give him access to their accounts so he could deposit the checks and withdraw the funds before the fraud could be detected.
Chase Matthew Griffin, 26, of Atlanta, Georgia, who also lived in Ontario and South Los Angeles, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Josephine L. Staton, who also ordered him to pay $307,386 in restitution.
Griffin pleaded guilty in March in downtown Los Angeles to one federal count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud.
The scheme operated when he and others obtained checks stolen from the mail, then altered them or created counterfeit versions so they appeared to be payable to their accomplices.
Griffin recruited accomplices online, often through Instagram, where he posted photographs of himself holding stacks of currency that were more than one foot high. He advertised for holders of various bank accounts to give him access to their accounts, evidence showed.
According to his plea agreement, after he recruited an accomplice, Griffin and his co-conspirators deposited the fraudulent checks, which were typically for tens of thousands of dollars, into the accomplice’s bank account, then raced to withdraw the funds before the bank could detect the fraud.
For example, in December 2023, prosecutors said, a North Hollywood business reported to law enforcement that it had mailed three checks totaling nearly $84,490 from a U.S. Postal Service collection box in Tarzana. However, the checks were stolen then deposited into JPMorgan Chase accounts not belonging to the intended recipients.
The business representative provided images of the checks that had been deposited and confirmed the listed payee on each check had been changed from the intended recipient.
A law enforcement review of a Chase bank account where one of those checks was deposited revealed a previous deposit of about $22,487 made at an ATM in Upland. The check, along with another check for nearly $29,081, was stolen and used to create counterfeit checks with the same date, check number, and amount at the original, but with different payees, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Griffin’s plea agreement stated the money was quickly withdrawn from the account and used for ATM withdrawals, Zelle and CashApp payments, a plane ticket, and card purchases at a Southern California casino. Law enforcement later traced the scheme to Griffin.