Seven Charged in New England Scheme to Cash Stolen U.S. Treasury Checks

Federal authorities charged seven people June 4 with operating a multi-year scheme that stole U.S. Treasury checks throughout New England and converted them into cash through corrupt bank tellers and recruited depositors.

The indictment, returned in U.S. District Court in Vermont, names Jermaine G. Gethers, 40, of Springfield, Massachusetts; Jovan Gethers, 37, of the Bronx, New York; Jermel Gethers, 42, of the Bronx; Jermaine K. Gethers, 38, of the Bronx; Tijuan D. Gethers, 47, of the Bronx; Shamel C.

Coggins, 44, of the Bronx; and Shantel N. Coggins, 37, of Springfield. All seven face charges of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, bank fraud, and aggravated identity theft.

The scheme targeted legitimate Treasury checks issued to individuals and businesses across Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Maine. Conspirators stole the checks from mailboxes, altered payee information or created counterfeit endorsements, then recruited bank employees and account holders to deposit the instruments into accounts they controlled.

Once cleared, the proceeds were withdrawn and split among participants.

The charging document details specific stolen checks whose face values ranged from several hundred to several thousand dollars each. Because the checks carried the full faith and credit of the United States, banks initially honored them, allowing the ring to operate for years before detection by Treasury investigators and postal inspectors.

The case forms part of a broader enforcement initiative by the Justice Department and Treasury Department to combat check fraud targeting federal payments. Convictions on the aggravated identity theft counts carry a mandatory two-year prison term that must run consecutively to any other sentence.

Downstream, the indictment requires the defendants to forfeit any proceeds traceable to the fraud and sets restitution hearings that will calculate exact losses to Treasury and to the original check recipients. Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service must now review internal controls on paper check issuance for benefit programs including Social Security, veterans’ pensions and tax refunds in the four-state region.

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service will accelerate installation of secure-collection mailboxes in neighborhoods repeatedly hit by the ring.

This is the latest in a series of federal prosecutions stemming from a surge in Treasury check theft that began during the expanded mail delivery of pandemic-era stimulus and unemployment payments. The Vermont U.S. Attorney’s Office has pursued similar cases against rings targeting Social Security and IRS refund checks since 2022.