NEW CITY – Two Rockland County men have been indicted for their alleged roles in the theft of some $250,000 from several banks and their customers by depositing dozens of altered US Postal Service money orders.
Lawrence Lazard, 28, of Haverstraw, and Fabrice Stinfil, 20, of Spring Valley, are charged in a Rockland County Court indictment with two counts of grand larceny. Lazard was also charged with 24 counts of criminal possession of a forged instrument and Stinfil was also charged with criminal facilitation.
District Attorney Thomas Zugibe said the two “allegedly played a role in a two-state crime spree that resulted in the hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraud.” He said law enforcement agencies are “coming together to fight back” as gang members are using “old-fashioned deception to cheat banks.
The crime spree has affected 14 different financial institutions in and around Rockland County and “shows that street criminals are getting creative on how to steal money,” said Angel Melendez, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New York.
Lazard is believed to have deposited more than 300 altered money orders into dozens of bank accounts at various branches in Rockland, Orange and Bergen counties. The financial institutions impacted by the scam included Sterling National Bank, First Niagara Bank and Capital One Bank.
