Rainey
WHITE PLAINS – An Ossining man pled guilty in Westchester County Court on Friday to felony charges dealing with check forging.
Devante Rainey, 24, had been the target of a two-year investigation by the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office, who purchased photographs of co-conspirators’ payroll checks, then used the routing numbers and checking account numbers to create forged checks using small business software.
Rainey then deposited the checks via a mobile deposit into co-conspirators’ bank accounts, making the fraudulent activity one step removed from him. He used fictitious payor names and addresses on the checks to further mislead law enforcement.
In March 2016, search warrants were executed by DA investigators at two locations that Rainey used as forgery mills, one in Ossining and the other in Cortlandt. Computers, printers, forged checks, and phones were recovered. At the Cortlandt location, investigators found shredded checks and other discarded evidence of check making in a dumpster.
When Rainey was arrested, he was found with two forged checks in his pocket.
He could face from two to seven years in prison on his guilty plea to identity theft and criminal possession of forgery devices, both as felonies. Sentencing is set for May.
