A Goodyear man, Cory Jermaine White, Jr., was sentenced to 108 months in prison and ordered to pay $8,446,858.31 in restitution after pleading guilty to conspiracies to commit bank and wire fraud, and money laundering.
Six other co-defendants in this matter have already pleaded guilty and have been sentenced to varying years in prison.
According to the court documents and statements made in court, White’s multi-year scheme involved several steps. First, a co-conspirator would steal a parcel of mail containing a legitimate check meant for a legitimate business. A second co-conspirator would then incorporate a sham entity using the same name as the legitimate company to whom the check was made out (often in another state to avoid detection). Using the sham corporate registration documents, co-conspirators would next open a corporate bank account in the name of the sham entity to deposit the stolen check. Finally, after the stolen check was deposited into the newly-opened bank account for the sham entity, the co-conspirators would quickly liquidate the funds and distribute the funds amongst themselves.