An Atlanta, Ga., man has been sentenced in federal court for his role in a bank fraud conspiracy that used homeless persons to cash counterfeit checks in the Kansas City metropolitan area and nationwide.
More than $400,000 in counterfeit checks was passed in the Kansas City area over the course of a few months in late 2012 and early 2013, according to Tammy Dickinson, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri.
Nationwide, more than $8 million in counterfeit checks was passed by various crews that traveled across the country to steal business mail, create counterfeit payroll checks and recruit homeless men to cash the counterfeit checks.
Marion Anthony Norwood, also known as “Wee-Wee,” 47, of Atlanta, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Beth Phillips on Monday, Oct. 5, 2015, to 12 years in federal prison without parole. The court also ordered Norwood to pay more than $200,000 in restitution.
On Aug. 20, 2014, Norwood was convicted at trial of participating in a conspiracy to commit bank fraud. Norwood was the leader of a crew that traveled to Kansas City and recruited homeless men to pass computer-generated counterfeit payroll checks at local banks. The scheme also involved the theft of mail at businesses, where the perpetrators looked for company checks to use as templates to make the counterfeit checks. Norwood manufactured and printed the counterfeit checks and gave them to co-conspirators.
Norwood traveled to Kansas City in November 2012 with Gary Merritt, 56, of Kansas City, Kan. (formerly of Atlanta), according to the U.S. attorney’s office. Merritt’s role in the conspiracy was to find homeless men in Kansas City and recruit them to pass counterfeit payroll checks at local banks, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. Anthony Bernard Lowe, 53, and Marcus Bryant, 33, both of Atlanta, traveled together from Atlanta and met Norwood and Merritt in Kansas City.
In a separate but related case, Merritt and Bryant each pleaded guilty and were sentenced to five years in federal prison without parole. Lowe pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four years and nine months in federal prison without parole.
Conspirators made a second trip to Kansas City shortly after Christmas in 2012 to continue the scheme with counterfeit checks that were manufactured and printed by Norwood.
Conspirators returned to Kansas City in January 2013 to continue the scheme with counterfeit checks that were manufactured and printed by Norwood. Some of the conspirators then traveled to Lincoln, Neb., to continue the counterfeit check scheme.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney John E. Cowles. It was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department, the Leawood, Kan., Police Department and the Atlanta, Ga., Police Department.