Counterfeit ringleader faces fraud charges

In one case, the defendant was aided by a bank teller.

staff report

YOUNGSTOWN — A man with a history of defrauding banks with counterfeit checks has been charged again with the same scheme.

An information was filed Wednesday in Cleveland federal court that charges Wickie Tutt Jr., 37, of Youngstown with aiding and abetting bank fraud. An information means the defendant has waived his right to indictment by a grand jury and, in nearly all cases, reached a plea agreement with the government.

The government said that, between April and May 2007, Tutt devised a scheme to defraud Sky Bank, Home Savings and Loan, National City Bank and Citizens Bank in the Youngstown area by producing 36 counterfeit checks that totaled $39,965. The checks were then distributed to others who cashed them, court papers show.

In December 2002, Tutt was sentenced to three years and four months in prison and ordered to make restitution of $221,209 to 10 financial institutions. A federal judge also ordered that he serve five years’ supervised release. Tutt and six others were prosecuted for bank fraud for their involvement in a counterfeit-check ring.

One of Tutt’s accomplices in the 2002 case, a bank teller, compromised customers’ information and photocopied checks, which she provided to others, the government said. The compromised information was used to create false identifications and counterfeit checks, which were then cashed at various banks.

In June 2003, Tutt, who was already in federal prison, was indicted by a grand jury in Pittsburgh federal court on a charge of conspiracy. Tutt produced bogus company paychecks and recruited people to cash them, splitting the proceeds with those people. Tutt also cashed some of the checks himself at various Mellon Bank branches in western Pennsylvania, the government said.

In May 2005, Tutt was sentenced to time served in the 2002 Ohio case followed by five years’ supervised release. He was ordered to make restitution of $53,161 to Mellon Bank. His probation jurisdiction was transferred to the northern district of Ohio in April 2007.

The latest case is assigned to Judge Solomon Oliver Jr. in Cleveland and is being prosecuted by John D. Sammon, an assistant U.S. attorney. Tutt is represented by Albert A. Palombaro, a Boardman attorney.