LOS ANGELES – A San Bernardino County man was sentenced today to 77 months in federal prison for stealing more than half a million dollars in United States Treasury checks and then using them to defraud two major banks.

            Danele Ramon Morgan, 46, of Rancho Cucamonga, was sentenced by United States District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald, who also ordered him to pay $337,083 in restitution.

            Morgan pleaded guilty in September 2019 to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud. He admitted in his plea agreement that he obtained stolen checks and enlisted co-conspirators to assist in opening fraudulent bank accounts in the payees' names. Afterward, they could deposit the stolen checks and withdraw funds through cash withdrawals and debit card purchases.

            In furtherance of his scheme, Morgan obtained and used fraudulent identification documents with his and his co-conspirators' photographs, but with the payees' personal information. Armed with these documents, Morgan and his co-conspirators personally entered banks pretending to be the payees, opened fraudulent bank accounts and deposited the stolen checks.

            Morgan and his co-conspirators deposited approximately $571,681 in stolen treasury checks between June 2016 and January 2017, causing actual losses of $337,084 to Bank of America and Wells Fargo.  The conspirators opened fraudulent accounts or used fraudulently obtained ATM cards were opened at Bank of America branches in Pasadena, Atascadero, Paso Robles,Castro Valley and Pleasanton, and at a Wells Fargo branch in Los Banos