SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Dec. 10, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — A scammer convicted in four states came to Utah and recruited 12 “impoverished” sometimes transient Utahns and wired them for sound to pass checks .
And it worked. For about seven months. Rolling up more than $200,000 in funds bilked from banks, according to federal prosecutors.
In pleading guilty to fraud charges, Toddorius Goodwin, 34 of Lithonia, Georgia, admitted in August that he and his associates from April to October of 2022 traveled from Georgia to Utah several times to engage in a sophisticated check fraud scheme, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office for Utah.
“They recruited impoverished individuals locally to take on the risk — as the runners entering the banks to physically cash the forged checks and potentially face arrest.”
Goodwin and his associates stole payroll checks from private mailboxes, prosecutors said, altered the “payable to” names to the recruited individual’s name, and sent them into various banks to cash the forged checks. In exchange they got a small cut of the proceeds.
“Goodwin and his associates trained the recruits and coached them through an earpiece from a distance.”
In all the runners cashed at least $214,179.51 worth of counterfeit checks during the life of the scam.
“The cash-gorged crew then flew home to Georgia, leaving the destitute individuals in Utah to face potential legal consequences if identified by bank surveillance.”
Twelve Utahns were identified as the recruited individuals, four detailing their involvement to investigators and referred to as “RI” 1 through 4 in documents filed in Salt Lake City’s federal court.
RI 3 reported hanging around North Temple St. in Salt Lake City in August of 2022 when Goodwin approached him, offering to pay for his hotel, gas, and drugs. “Goodwin gave him a cell phone, a Bluetooth earpiece, and provided him with instructions from a distance while he cashed checks. Goodwin instructed RI 3 to give the signal of lighting a cigarette if he succeeded in cashing the check.”
“RI 2 reported that he initially thought the work was legal and later came to suspect it was not,” according to the court documents. Recruits were often told the work was meant to help cash paychecks for undocumented workers who feared deportation.
RI 2 explained that he and Goodwin even participated in a scheme to steal from the group of co-conspirators. Goodwin would pay RI 2 extra money to cash checks while reporting to the boss that they were unsuccessful in cashing the checks. “RI 2 recalled an occasion where Goodwin stole $10,000 and paid him not to tell the ‘boss.'”
The case was investigated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
“Exploiting the vulnerable to commit check fraud is not only a crime against the law but a grave injustice against humanity,” said HSI Las Vegas Special Agent in Charge Chris Miller in a press release about Goodwin’s case.
“Those who prey on the impoverished to cash fraudulent checks, manipulating their desperation for personal gain, stands as a stark reminder of the darkest facets of greed.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Sachi Jepson of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Utah was the lead prosecutor. “The United States recommends that the court sentence Goodwin to serve 36 months’ imprisonment, followed by five years’ supervised release, and order restitution in the amount of $214,179.51 to the victim banks and credit unions,” Jepson wrote in an 11-page sentencing recommendation.
U.S. District Judge for Utah Tena Campbell last month followed the recommendation to the letter in sentencing Goodwin.
Jepson listed Goodwin’s criminal history as including a 2013 felony conviction for terroristic threats in Georgia, a 2014 felony conviction for forgery in Mississippi, a 2020 felony conviction for criminal simulation in Tennessee, and a 2021 felony conviction for attempted criminal conspiracy in Nebraska.
The 34-year-old Goodwin has eight children, including the recent birth of a child with his partner of six years, according to the court filings. “He has expressed an interest in getting mental health and substance abuse treatment, returning to college, spending time with his children, and preventing them from growing up without a father the way he did.”
Goodwin’s father was in prison when he was born, and he was shuttled to various relatives who raised him in a “difficult” and “unstable’ upbringing.
