Bank fraud bust Accused leader ran scheme from home

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March 10, 2000

Bank fraud bustAccused leader ran scheme from home

by Julie Knipe Brown Daily News Staff Writer

By day, Antoine Norman claimed he earned a meager living working as a barber on Ogontz Avenue while shuttling to and from his rowhouse in East Mount Airy.

But behind the doors of his modest home, authorities said yesterday, Norman wasn't counting his pennies from clipping hair.

He was counting his millions from clipping bank accounts in two states as part of a massive bank fraud operation.

His conspirators, authorities said, included U.S. postal employees and tellers who worked for one of the region's largest banks.

Bank employees worked as tellers, bank photo retrievers and mail clerks. They received half of each take in exchange for helping Norman, according to the arrest affidavits.

The organized ring swiped untold boxes of reordered checks from post offices in Plymouth Township, Montgomery County, and from the Mount Airy post office in Philadelphia, then forged and cashed the checks over the past two years - emptying accounts of at least 40 unsuspecting bank customers.

One suspect told investigators that he supplied Norman with at least 20 boxes of checks from the Mount Airy post office, and that at least 10 other post office employees were also involved.

Norman, 26, ran the operation from his home using sophisticated computers and printers set up to counterfeit checks and scan in signatures, authorities said.

Norman and 18 others were arrested yesterday following an investigation by First Union Bank, Plymouth Township police, the U.S. Postal Service, the U.S. Secret Service and the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office.

A self-described "computer graphics expert," Norman and his cohorts also used the checks to purchase tools, equipment and other items from stores throughout Montgomery County and Philadelphia, which they then returned or sold for cash, authorities said.

At least $300,000 was stolen, but investigators suspect that figure could top $5 million by the time their probe is complete. The checks were cashed at First Union Bank branches in Plymouth Township, Conshohocken, Philadelphia, and in Camden County, N.J.

Norman, who lived on Forest Avenue near East Sharpnack Street, has been charged with taking part in a corrupt organizations, along with five others. Five former First Union Bank employees were charged with bank fraud and eight others were charged with being runners for the organization.

The scheme was discovered when First Union investigators confronted one of his co-conspirators, who then dimed out his bosses.

Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor said First Union repaid its customers. The ultimate losers in these kinds of theft cases, he said, is the general public, which ends up absorbing the losses in the form of higher prices and bank fees.

http://www.phillynews.com/daily_news/2000/Mar/10/business/BANK10.htm

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), March 10, 2000


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