WHITE PLAINS – Westchester County District Attorney Anthony Scarpino, Jr. announced that 29-year-old Jelani Knox of Mount Vernon was sentenced yesterday to 2-4 years in prison late last week for identity theft in a scheme that included forging checks for deposit at Mount Vernon and Pelham bank branches.
Knox pleaded guilty March 5, 2020, to five counts of Identity Theft in the First Degree, a class D felony, one for each victim.
Prosecutors alleged that on five different days last summer, Jelani Knox altered checks from five unrelated Mount Vernon victims’ accounts, totaling more than $34,000 and deposited them in bank ATMs in Mount Vernon and Pelham. He would alter the amount on the checks and the payee, and then deposit them. The transactions were recorded on video and showed the defendant conducting the deposits at the ATMs.
During a separate incident in July, Mount Vernon Police arrested Knox. When arrested, he was in possession of a forged check and two debits cards in the names of the two accounts into which he was making deposits.
The United States Postal Inspection Service assisted in the case, according to Scarpino.
