Heard in the Hall

Three men plead guilty in sheriff's office scam

The defendants admitted roles in taking more than $400,000 in fraudulent checks and splitting the proceeds with an insider at the sheriff's office.

6 comments

Three men plead guilty in sheriff's office scam

POSTED: Monday, January 9, 2012, 2:59 PM

BOB WARNER

Three Philadelphia men pled guilty in federal court today to roles in a fraudulent check scheme that drained more than $400,000 from the city sheriff’s office, with alleged help from one of the sheriff’s internal auditors.

Robert Rogers, Jackiem Wright and Reginald Berry each pled guilty to one count of wire fraud for accepting and cashing some of the bogus checks, made out to three individuals and three companies, according to a presentation by federal prosecutors Sarah L. Grieb and Christopher Diviny.

U. S. District Judge Legrome D. Davis scheduled sentencing hearings for the three men in April.

Federal sentencing guidelines suggest a prison term of 27 to 33 months for Rogers, 35, who admitted cashing checks worth about $10,000 and distributing the rest of the checks to individuals he had suggested for the scam.

Wright and Berry, both 29, admitted depositing two checks in their business account, securing $36,466 from one check and attempting to withdraw the proceeds of a second check, for $111,089. But the Bank of America got suspicious and contacted the sheriff’s office, which froze the proceeds. Sentencing guidelines call for 15 to 21 months imprisonment for Wright and Berry, but Judge Davis made clear that he would decide their sentence.

The alleged ringleader of the check scam, operating from 2007 to 2010, was Richard Bell, an “internal accounting auditor” for the sheriff’s office, fired at the end of November when the feds announced charges in the case.

Bell is scheduled to submit a plea in the case next week. He allegedly wrote the checks on sheriff accounts handling the proceeds from sales of tax- or mortgage-delinquent properties.

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Comments (6)

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 3:53 PM, 01/09/2012

Hopefully the Feds will keep pulling this thread and get someone to flip. Maybe the taxpayers of Philadelphia will get some deferred justice.

— axxell

Comment removed.

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 6:12 PM, 01/09/2012

I'm guessing there's a whole crew of former Sheriff's Office employees sweating bullets on this one. Go get 'em feds!

— freesamuel

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 6:21 PM, 01/09/2012

and of course, don't forget to wake up the person at City Hall that processes their Pension Forfeiture application.

— TheGuyfromPhilly

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 7:16 PM, 01/09/2012

Reginald Berry hmmmmm. Any relation to the Hon. judge Willis Berry

— jfly1222

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 5:22 PM, 01/10/2012

I wonder if former Acting Sheriff now Special Deputy Barbara Deeley is still being kept in the dark, and what about the alleged forged signatures of former Chief Deputy Janet Pina on questionable non-bidded Contracts for the Sheriff's office, I hope that these guilty pleas do not signify the end of this mess.

— jonnycee