Former Teller At Maryland Check Cashing Business Indicted For Conspiring To Defraud The United States And Stealing Government Funds

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                        Contact ELIZABETH MORSE

www.justice.gov/usao/md                                                         at (410) 209-4885

Greenbelt, Maryland –A grand jury in the District of Maryland returned an indictment, unsealed today, charging a former teller at a check cashing business in Maryland with theft of public money and conspiring to defraud the United States. The indictment was announced by Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Stephen M. Schenning and Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division.

According to the indictment, from approximately 2011 through 2013, Krystal Proctor conspired with others to negotiate refund checks that were fraudulently obtained by co-conspirators who filed tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) using stolen IDs. Proctor is alleged to have used her position as a teller at a check-cashing business to negotiate and facilitate the negotiation of the refund checks. The indictment charges that Proctor entered false information into the check cashing business’s database, including processing the checks under the names of existing customers rather than the names of the individuals listed on the checks. The indictment further alleges that Proctor recruited another teller to join the scheme, and orchestrated the negotiation of additional fraudulent tax refund checks through that teller. According to the indictment, between 2011 and 2013, Proctor and the teller she recruited, negotiated more than 100 tax refund checks totaling more than $500,000.

An indictment is merely an accusation, and a defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

If convicted, Proctor faces a statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison for the conspiracy count and 10 years in prison for each count of theft of public money. She also faces a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties.

Acting U.S. Attorney Schenning and Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Goldberg commended special agents of the Treasury Department’s Office of the Inspector General and IRS Criminal Investigation, who conducted the investigation. Schenning also thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Packard and Trial Attorneys Kimberly Ang, William Guappone and Tom Koelbl of the Tax Division, who are prosecuting the case.