Cyber Criminals: Steven Ray Convicted of Mail Fraud and Forging Treasury Checks

<h2>Former Brockport Fireman Sentenced For Mail Fraud&comma; Forging Treasury Checks And Obstruction Of Justice<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>ROCHESTER&comma; N&period;Y&period; &&num;8211&semi; U&period;S&period; Attorney William J&period; Hochul&comma; Jr&period; announced today that Steven Ray&comma; 51 of Brockport&comma; NY&comma; who was convicted of mail fraud&comma; forging treasury checks&comma; and obstructing an official proceeding&comma; was sentenced to 84 months in prison by U&period;S&period; District Court Judge David G&period; Larimer&period; The defendant was also ordered to pay &dollar;309&comma;511 in restitution to the United States&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<div class&equals;"mh-content-ad"><script async src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;pagead2&period;googlesyndication&period;com&sol;pagead&sol;js&sol;adsbygoogle&period;js&quest;client&equals;ca-pub-9162800720558968"&NewLine; crossorigin&equals;"anonymous"><&sol;script>&NewLine;<ins class&equals;"adsbygoogle"&NewLine; style&equals;"display&colon;block&semi; text-align&colon;center&semi;"&NewLine; data-ad-layout&equals;"in-article"&NewLine; data-ad-format&equals;"fluid"&NewLine; data-ad-client&equals;"ca-pub-9162800720558968"&NewLine; data-ad-slot&equals;"1081854981"><&sol;ins>&NewLine;<script>&NewLine; &lpar;adsbygoogle &equals; window&period;adsbygoogle &vert;&vert; &lbrack;&rsqb;&rpar;&period;push&lpar;&lbrace;&rcub;&rpar;&semi;&NewLine;<&sol;script><&sol;div>&NewLine;<p>Assistant U&period;S&period; Attorney Craig R&period; Gestring&comma; who is handling the case&comma; stated that federal law enforcement agents first encountered Ray related to his role in a mail fraud scheme involving stolen United States Treasury checks&period; In that case&comma; Ray cashed more than 120 forged checks worth more than &dollar;400&comma;000 over an 18-month period of time&period; The checks were stolen from residents in the New York City Area as well as from people in other parts of the United States&period; The stolen checks were mailed to Ray via the United States Postal Service at his Brockport home&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>During that investigation&comma; federal agents identified at least 13 area bank accounts controlled by the defendant under various names&comma; including his own as well as a company he owned named Steray of Rochester&period; Ray took the stolen checks he received by mail and deposited them across multiple accounts&period; Many of the checks belonged to people who received Social Security payments&comma; tax refunds&comma; and other money drawn from the United States Treasury to help the intended recipients&period; As a result of the defendant’s scheme to defraud&comma; Ray obtained more than &dollar;400&comma;000&comma; however&comma; the United States was able to recover almost &dollar;100&comma;000 from the banks during the investigation&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>While out of custody awaiting sentencing on that case&comma; the defendant filed a sentencing statement with the Court in May 2015&period; Among the items submitted to the Court in support of a downward departure sentence were several claims about Ray’s alleged heroic service as a Brockport Fireman&period; Specifically&comma; the defendant claimed that he dove into a Brockport swimming pool and pulled a three-year-old unconscious child from the water and then performed CPR until help arrived&period; Ray also claimed that he was the first on the scene of an incident at SUNY Brockport in which a student fell down a stairwell&period; In that incident&comma; the defendant claimed to have performed an emergency tracheotomy on the victim using only his penknife&period; However&comma; the facts showed that his statements were all lies&comma; and that Ray actually did none of these things&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In that same request for a downward departure sentence&comma; the defendant also submitted a letter from a local resident attesting to Ray’s character and truthfulness&period; However&comma; it turned out the letter was actually a forgery&period; Federal agents met with the witness who confirmed that he never wrote a letter in support of Ray&comma; did not say the things in the letter&comma; and pointed out that many of the things in the letter&comma; including the spelling of the witness’ own name was wrong&period; Based on this&comma; the Government filed a notice with the Court pointing out that the defendant submitted false material to the Court for sentencing&period; Ray received a copy of that statement the day it was filed&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Within hours of receiving that statement&comma; the defendant went to the home of that witness&comma; who is wheelchair bound&comma; and coerced and intimidated him into submitting a false affidavit saying that he had actually written the letter to the Court&period; Ray did this late at night while the witness was already in bed&period; The defendant then had the false affidavit notarized and submitted to the Court&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Ray was an Officer with the Brockport Fire Department for the entire time he was engaged in the fraudulent scheme to defraud the United States&period; He was fired in March of 2015 following his felony plea to mail fraud but retained his Fire Department Badge and ID&comma; which he continued to use after his termination&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The sentencing is the culmination of an investigation on the part of Inspectors from the United States Postal Inspection Service&comma; under the direction of Shelly Binkowski&comma; Inspector In Charge of the Boston Division&comma; and Special Agents of the Internal Revenue Service&comma; Criminal Investigation Division&comma; under the Direction of Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office&comma; Shantelle P&period; Kitchen&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;justice&period;gov&sol;usao-wdny&sol;pr&sol;former-brockport-fireman-sentenced-mail-fraud-forging-treasury-checks-and-obstruction">Original PressReleases &&num;8230&semi;<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;

Cyber CriminalsMail Fraud