A Rochester man pleaded guilty Tuesday to a sweeping financial fraud scheme that targeted hundreds of victims and drained more than half a million dollars using stolen and altered checks.
Sheldon Marquis Adams, 26, admitted to conspiracy to commit bank fraud, a charge that carries up to 30 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of New York.
Federal investigators said Adams and others stole hundreds of checks from U.S. Postal Service mailboxes around Rochester between March and September 2023. The checks were either forged or “washed” with acetone to change the information, then used to withdraw money from unsuspecting bank customers’ accounts.
Adams also used social media to recruit people to cash the altered checks, prosecutors said. In exchange for a cut of the money, those recruits deposited the fraudulent checks into their personal accounts and handed over the funds before the fraud could be detected…