A Columbia County woman is expected to spend nearly six years in federal prison over a $1 million check-fraud scheme.
Dechanta Benning, 35, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Randal Hall to 70 months in prison and ordered to pay a $2,500 fine and $300 in special assessments.
According to prosecutors, Benning “obtained business checks stolen from the United States Postal Service, altered them, deposited the altered checks into the bank accounts of co-conspirators as well as her own accounts, then withdrew the money,” the U.S. Department of Justice’s Southern District of Georgia said in a statement Friday. “The money was withdrawn before the banks were able to recognize the checks as fraudulent.”…