Southern California man sentenced to 7 years for stealing $2.7 million in checks from mail

A South Los Angeles man was sentenced on Monday to more than 7 years in federal prison for his role in a scheme to defraud banks and credit unions by stealing checks from mail.

Carlos Corona, 37, previously pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft on May 1.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office , Corona and co-conspirators performed an elaborate scheme between October 2020 and August 2023. Corona, who organized the scheme and recruited accomplices through Instagram, had some conspirators steal checks from collection boxes outside of post offices.

After obtaining those stolen checks, the schemers would then contact the bank account holders through social media in attempts to get them to give their debit card and account information, promising account holders a cut of any fraudulent funds deposited into their accounts.

If successful in their efforts to obtain bank account holders’ account numbers, PIN numbers, debit cards and online banking log-in information, they’d then deposit the stolen checks into these bank accounts.

Oftentimes, those stolen checks were endorsed with forged signatures or even completely altered to make the payee name match that on the bank account being used.

Corona and his conspirators would then rapidly deplete the stolen money from the accounts through cash withdrawals, electronic transfers and debit card purchases. He instructed the account holders to tell banks that their accounts had been compromised if the fraudulent deposits were flagged.

In total, more than $2.7 million was stolen.

Corona on Monday was sentenced to 87 months in federal prison by United States District Judge John F. Walter and was ordered to pay $2,722,632 in restitution.

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