Forgery of U.S. Treasury Checks

A bank filed a SAR reporting the deposit of U.S. Treasury checks to an account held by a deceased customer (a retired government employee) receiving monthly retirement benefits. The bank determined that its customer died in 1998. For two and one half years following the customer?s death, her daughter forged her deceased mother?s signature on the U.S. Treasury checks, deposited the funds into the account, and lived off the proceeds which totaled approximately $100,000. As a result of the SAR, the USSS initiated an investigation, which resulted in the arrest and subsequent conviction of the suspect for violation of 18 USC 510, Forging U.S. Treasury Checks. She received five years of federal probation and was ordered to pay restitution to the U.S. Treasury Department. (Source: USSS)

Excerpted from SAR Activity Review Issue 6, page 44