A Georgia man will spend nearly three years behind bars for his role in a sophisticated identity theft and bank fraud ring that stretched from Georgia to Western New York. Lorenzo Jones, 38, was sentenced to 34 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Lawrence J. Vilardo following his conviction for conspiracy to commit bank fraud and aggravated identity theft.
U.S. Attorney Michael DiGiacomo announced the sentencing on Tuesday, detailing a scheme that operated between January and September 2022. According to prosecutors Paul E. Bonanno and Sasha Mascarenhas, Jones and his co-conspirators—Ameer Clark, Quentavious Price, and Montez White—regularly traveled from Atlanta to the Buffalo and Rochester areas to carry out their operations.
The group targeted local businesses by stealing genuine checks and using them as templates to create fraudulent duplicates. To bypass bank security, the conspirators recruited local individuals to act as “runners” to cash the checks.
In an effort to make these individuals appear legitimate, the group purchased specific clothing to disguise them as construction workers or laborers before driving them to various bank branches.
Court records highlight three specific waves of activity. In January 2022, Jones and Price flew to Buffalo to target accounts belonging to businesses in Elma and Tonawanda.
They returned in March to hit branches of M&T Bank, Bank on Buffalo, and Evans Bank using accounts from firms in Clarence and Sanborn. A final trip in September 2022 involved the entire group flying into Rochester, where they directed six different individuals to attempt check cashing at multiple financial institutions.
The “runners” involved in the scheme received only small payments for their participation if the checks were successfully cashed. Federal authorities calculated the total impact of the conspiracy, including both actual and intended losses, at $64,979.67.
While Jones is the latest to be sentenced, his partners in the scheme—Clark, Price, and White—have all been previously convicted for their involvement in the fraud ring.
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