Man pleads guilty to $1.3 million fake check fraud

A Virginia man pleaded guilty to fraud charges after he attempted to buy a Roanoke home with a fake $1.3 million check.

According to the Justice Department, he has pleaded guilty to wire fraud, mail fraud, bank fraud, and filing false claims against the United States.

Trial Attorney Andrew Ascencio of the Tax Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Lee Brett for the Western District of Virginia are prosecuting the case.

Virginia man pleads guilty to million-dollar fraud

The man in question, Herman Estes, filed falsified tax returns and claimed he was legally entitled to a $18.3 million tax refund.

In March 2023, he set his sights on the Roanoke property Old Mill Plantation Road and submitted a cash offer of $1.3 million. He also filed another false tax return, said the report, for a $2.9 million refund.

As part of the report, he admitted to fabricating an official letter using an online form generator. He also colluded with another person to present a “trust manager” role, which allowed him to approve the transfer of the false funds.

Estes reportedly generated a “fraudulent cashier’s check that he had signed in the amount of $1,307,199.43 purportedly drawn on the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. Funds in that amount were debited to the settlement company’s trust account before the check was identified as fraudulent,” said the Justice Department.

His case was announced by Deputy Assistant Attorney General David A. Hubbert of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and Acting U.S. Attorney Zachary T. Lee for the Western District of Virginia.

He faces charges of wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, and mail fraud counts, which could result in a twenty-year prison term. He also faces a maximum penalty of thirty years in prison for bank fraud and a maximum penalty of five years in prison for the false claims counts.

Image: Pexels.

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