Six Area Men Indicted in Counterfeit Check Ring

Six Washington area men have been indicted on federal charges of running a counterfeit check ring that siphoned more than $1.6 million from banks and other financial institutions, authorities said yesterday.

In an indictment filed Thursday in U.S. District Court, prosecutors laid out a sophisticated scheme that relied on account information provided by bank employees and on drug addicts who were recruited to cash hundreds of counterfeit checks across the region.

"This was very well organized," said Todd Kreisher, assistant special agent in charge of the U.S. Secret Service's Washington field office.

The indictment named Naibeye Koumbairia, 34, of Northwest Washington as the group's ringleader. Koumbairia was arrested Wednesday. His attorney could not be reached for comment. The others charged in the indictment are either being sought or are in custody, authorities said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Debra Long-Doyle, who is handling the prosecution, declined comment.

Koumbairia is accused in court papers of recruiting employees at banks, including Provident Bank and SunTrust Bank, to provide him with legitimate checks belonging to individuals and businesses. Among the targeted businesses: Howard University, a dialysis clinic and a nonprofit group that helps the homeless find housing, the indictment alleges.

The group scanned the checks into computers and printed out bogus checks, the indictment alleges. The scam's alleged members used magnetic ink to print account and routing numbers on the checks. The special ink is used to track checks and detect counterfeits, according to the 38-page indictment.

If the checks were made out in large amounts, the group usually deposited them into accounts of people they recruited into the conspiracy, the indictment alleges. For checks in smaller amounts -- most were under $1,500 -- they hired "people perceived by them to be addicted to drugs or otherwise in need of cash," the indictment says.

The group created counterfeit checks in the addicts' names and took them to banks and other businesses to cash them. The addicts were given a small portion of the proceeds for their help, the indictment alleges.

After a long day of passing counterfeit checks, the indictment says, the group would meet at the alleged ringleader's home to plot the next day's strategy.

The Secret Service began investigating counterfeit checks that later were linked to the scheme in February 2006, when it received a complaint about fake checks turning up at a check-cashing business, authorities said.

In August 2006, police arrested an unidentified man on bank fraud charges. He tipped Secret Service agents off to Koumbairia, according to court papers.

Agents raided Koumbairia's home in the 5100 block of Eighth Street NW in March of that year and charged him with bank fraud.

They also recovered a .45-caliber pistol in the home and charged him with being a felon in illegal possession of a handgun. Prosecutors dropped the bank fraud charge, but Koumbairia was convicted in U.S. District Court on the gun charge and sentenced to 17 months in prison. He was arrested by Secret Service agents Wednesday as he was being released from a federal prison on the gun conviction.

The others charged in the indictment are Melvin C. Johnson, 35, William K. Glay, 31, Edwin T. Tantoh, 33, Carl I. Coleman, 30, and Kenya T. Yokley, 26.