Reality Check Turns Million-Plus Bank Draft to Junk Mail for Scammers
Check fraudsters who saw opportunity in a change of address when a Lower Manhattan company moved from the Financial District to Battery Park City were recently sentenced to prison and probation terms.
The scheme began in 2022, shortly after Bazooka Candy Brands (the originator of Bazooka Bubble Gum) relocated from One Whitehall Street, near Bowling Green, to 200 Vesey Street, within Battery Park City’s Brookfield Place complex. Around this time, according to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, six conspirators hatched a plot to intercept business mail that was still being routed to the Whitehall Street address. This plan scored an apparent windfall when one of the envelopes they purloined turned out to contain a check for slightly more than $1.2 million, owed to Bazooka by a Texas-based company.
It turns out, however, that cashing a stolen seven-figure check and accessing the proceeds are complicated matters. So Kashawn Williams (identified by Mr. Bragg as, “the ringleader”) filed incorporation papers for a new firm with a similar name, the Bazooka Companies 1 Inc., and then opened a corporate bank account to deposit the check. In the weeks that followed, Mr. Williams wrote multiple checks against that account, disbursing funds to accomplices Adrean Jacobs, Akheim Watts, Jose Gutierrez, and Kiearra Reynolds. These checks bore memo lines such as “renovations,” “business loans,” and “packaging preorders.” The original five conspirators then laundered approximately $57,000 of this money by purchasing cashier’s checks, which were disbursed to a sixth accomplice, Ronald Franklin. Mr. Franklin, in turn, circulated these proceeds back to the personal bank accounts of the gang members.
In the meantime, Mr. Williams gradually withdrew $102,600 in cash from the Bazooka 1 account, and transferred another $250,000 from the corporate bank account to his personal account at Chase Bank. These funds were then laundered by transferring to a separate personal account, at Capital One. He eventually withdrew another $159,000 from this third account.
“This ring laundered more than $1.2 million through New York’s banks and financial services using checks for personal and corporate accounts, cashiers’ checks, and large cash withdrawals,” Mr. Bragg said.
When Bazooka noticed that it had not received more than $1 million in funds that it was owed, but the Texas company insisted it had submitted payment (and offered as evidence the cancelled check that had been deposited in the Bazooka Companies 1 account), federal and local law enforcement agencies launched an investigation. The trail quickly led back to Mr. Williams, who had used his home address (in the Bronx) when filing incorporation papers for Bazooka Companies 1 with the New York Department of State.
This culminated last October in indictments against all six members of the ring, who were variously charged with grand larceny, conspiracy, money laundering, criminal possession of stolen property, and identity theft. As their trial dates approached, several of the defendants began offering to plead guilty to reduced charges, and testify against the remaining accomplices.
By mid-July, all six had pleaded guilty to various degrees of money laundering and attempted money laundering. (The charges of grand larceny, conspiracy, criminal possession of stolen property, and identity theft were dropped for all defendants.) The first sentences were handed down on July 17, when Mr. Williams was given 12 to 36 months in prison for money laundering (first degree). Mr. Franklin was sentenced to 18 to 36 months for attempted money laundering (third degree), and Ms. Jacobs got five years of probation for attempted money laundering (second degree). Mr. Gutierrez and Mr. Watts were both pleaded guilty to attempted money laundering (second degree), with the former sentenced to six months in jail and five years probation, while the latter drew three years of probation. A judge’s decision for the last defendant, Mr. Reynolds, is still pending, but Mr. Bragg says that based on his guilty plea and the penalty agreed to, he is expected to be sentenced in September to a prison term of 18 to 36 months for attempted money laundering (third degree).