A 28-year-old Mount Laurel man has pleaded guilty to defrauding banks with fake debit cards and checks stolen from the mail, according to Philip Lamparello of the U.S. attorney’s office.
Kharon Parson-Wright appeared on Dec. 17 before U.S. District Judge Edward S. Kiel, where he faced one count of conspiring to commit bank fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.
According to documents filed in the case and court statements, Parson-Wright conspired with Yasmene Johnson, Dante Ford and others to commit bank fraud with checks stolen from blue post office collection boxes. The trio allegedly created counterfeit versions of the checks or altered them by increasing their value and changing payee names to theirs or to someone else involved in the conspiracy, Lamparello reported.
Parson-Wright admitted that he and the others tried to use the counterfeit or altered checks to withdraw funds before the banks learned the checks were illegitimate. The conspiracy involved the negotiation of checks at banks across South Jersey and elsewhere, with some written for amounts in the tens of thousands.
Parson-Wright also admitted connecting Johnson with a bank employee who created fake debit cards in the name of account holders that were then used to make purchases and ATM withdrawals in New Jersey. Parson-Wright admitted that the fraud resulted in actual losses exceeding $424,000 and intended losses exceeding $1.5 million, according to Lamparello.
The conspiracy count carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million. Aggravated identity theft carries a penalty of two years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Parson-Wright’s sentencing is scheduled for April 20.
Johnson previously pleaded guilty to the same two offenses for her role in the bank conspiracy and is scheduled to be sentenced in March. Ford and three other defendants were sentenced this year after pleading guilty in the same conspiracy.
Lamparello credited U.S. postal inspectors in the Philadelphia division and the Mount Laurel police for assistance in the investigation.
