NEWS

Man who recruited, dressed up homeless to cash fake checks admits to crime

Mark Walker
mwalker@argusleader.com

The scheme was intricate: Recruit the homeless in Sioux Falls to cash fraudulent checks for a small fee – $100 to $200 per check – and receive a fresh pair of clothes.

The four Georgia men who made the 1,200-mile trek to Sioux Falls wouldn’t be seen on bank security cameras committing bank fraud., but authorities still caught up with them.

Ryan Vincent Hill stood in federal court in downtown Sioux Falls on Tuesday admitting his role in defrauding a handful of local banks out of $155,905.06.

He plead guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and now faces up to 30 years in federal prison and a $1 million fine.

MORE:Sioux Falls crime, courts news

According to documents filed in the case, from Aug. 26 to Sept. 24, 2013, Hill and co-defendants Xavier Shields, Dwight Daniels and Demarcus Stevens recruited homeless men and women to commit bank fraud.

The group drove around Sioux Falls stealing checks from mailboxes of local businesses. They specifically targeted mailboxes in business parks.

Stevens and Daniels would look through the mail for business checks they could use for the scheme, court records say. The stolen checks were sent to another co-conspirator in Atlanta, Ga.

That co-conspirator used the banking information from the stolen checks to make fake payroll checks for $1,500 to $2,600 per check. The checks were then overnighted to Sioux Falls and were cashed by homeless people recruited from local shelters, court records say.

Daniel purchased clothes for the homeless recruits to make them look presentable when they walked into banks to cash the check.

Daniels and Shields are expected to plead guilty next Tuesday; Stevens will plead on Wednesday.

Follow Mark Walker on Twitter @argusmwalker.