Three Camden Residents Charged With Stealing and Cashing More Than $200,000 in Checks

Three Camden residents have been charged for their alleged participation in a scheme in which they stole, altered and cashed more than 45 business checks worth more than $200,000, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced on Friday.

Their scheme resulted in a loss of $100,000 to the banks being victimized.

Ivory Vernon, 29, was arrested on Friday by Camden County Sheriff’s officers on unrelated charges. She is being charged federally in a 10-count indictment with bank fraud and conspiracy to commit bank fraud.

Joseph Reevey, 38, is charged with bank fraud and conspiracy to commit bank fraud. He is in Pennsylvania state custody.

Ibn Muhammad, 35, was charged with bank fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, and illegal possession of a firearm. He is in federal custody.

Between Aug. 6, 2012 and Aug. 1, 2013, Muhammad, Reevey, Vernon and others allegedly stole checks from curbside U.S. mailboxes in business industrial parks in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, according to the indictment.

Reevey and his conspirators would then recruit others to cash the stolen checks.

Muhammad and other conspirators would alter the stolen checks so that the name of the “payee” would match the name of the recruited check casher.

Reevey, Vernon, Warner and others would travel with the recruited check cashers to a bank, often in rented cars.

Muhammad, Reevey, and Vernon each face a maximum potential penalty of 30 years in prison and a fine of $1 million, or twice the gross gain or loss resulting from the offense for the bank fraud and conspiracy charges.

When law enforcement officials executed a search warrant on Muhammad’s home, they discovered a Smith and Wesson revolver and a Browning pistol. He faces a maximum potential penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 for the weapons offense.

Fishman credited special agents from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Philadelphia Division, under the direction of Inspector in Charge David Bosch; troopers from the N.J. State Police, under the direction of Col. Rick Fuentes; special agents from the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives under the leadership of Acting Special Agent in Charge George Belsky, and officers from the Gloucester Township and Pennsauken Township police departments for the investigation leading to today's arrest.