Federal Check Fraud Lawyers

Welcome to Spodek Law Group. Our goal is to give you the reality of federal check fraud charges - not the sanitized version other lawyers present, not the legal fiction that everything will be fine, but the actual truth about what happens when the federal government decides you're a check fraud case.

Most people who contact us about check fraud believe they're facing something manageable. Maybe some fines, maybe probation, maybe a few months in county jail if things go badly. This belief is dangerously wrong. Federal check fraud under 18 USC 1344 carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in federal prison and a $1 million fine. Thirty years. Not three years like state court wobbler cases. Thirty.

And here is what nobody tells you until its too late: by the time a federal agent contacts you about check fraud, the investigation is already complete. They've already subpoenaed records from every bank you touched for the past five years. They've already interviewed the tellers who cashed your checks. They've already pulled your identification photos from bank security footage. You're not being investigated. You're being documented for prosecution.

What Federal Check Fraud Actually Means

Theres a gap between what people think check fraud means and what federal prosecutors actualy charge. Most people imagine check fraud as writing a few bad checks at the grocery store - a state misdemeanor handled with a fine and maybe some embarassment. Federal check fraud is an entirely different animal.

Under 18 USC 1344, the federal bank fraud statute, anyone who "knowingly executes or attempts to execute a scheme to defraud a financial institution" faces up to 30 years imprisonment and a $1 million fine per count. Heres the thing - every federally insured bank you touched is a potential separate count. Five banks means five potential counts. Each carrying 30 years.

The federal system doesnt care that you never meant to hurt anyone. It doesnt care that you planned to pay everything back. It doesnt care that this was a temporary situation that got away from you. What matters is whether money moved through federally insured institutions in a way that constitutes fraud. If yes, you're facing federal charges. Your intentions are basicaly irrelevant to the charging decision.

OK so what makes this federal instead of state? The FDIC. The same insurance that protects your legitimate deposits from bank failure is what gives federal prosecutors jurisdiction over your fraud. Every bank insured by FDIC falls under federal jurisdiction. Thats basicly every bank in America.

And heres something most people dont realize - check kiting, which many people think of as clever cash management rather than crime, is specificaly addressed in federal statute. Moving money between accounts to cover checks before they clear? Thats bank fraud. The legislative history of 18 USC 1344 makes this explicit. What you thought was juggling your finances is what prosecutors call "scheme to defraud."

The Paper Trail Problem: Why They Already Know Everything

Heres were it gets terrifying. Banks dont wait for you to get caught. They're already watching.

Every check deposit triggers multiple electronic records. Your check is photographed front and back. Your ID is scanned and stored. If you used mobile deposit, your phone's IP address, device ID, and GPS coordinates were logged. The deposit timestamp, account information, and teller ID all go into a permanent record that cannot be deleted.

But thats just the beginning. Banks are legaly required to file Suspicious Activity Reports, called SARs, with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. These reports are secret. You will never receive notification that a SAR was filed about you. Your bank doesnt tell you. The government doesnt tell you. The first time you learn about it is when federal agents appear at your door.

Think about that: your bank has been building a case against you for months, possibly years, and you have no idea it's happening.

FinCEN collects these SARs and uses pattern recognition to identify fraud rings. When your pattern gets flagged, the case goes to FBI, Secret Service, or IRS Criminal Investigation. They dont call you first. They subpoena every bank you've had an account with for the past five to seven years. They pull every transaction, every deposit photo, every ID scan, every piece of surveillance footage showing you at teller windows.

What Todd Spodek tells clients is this: the federal investigation into your check fraud was probably running for 6 to 18 months before anyone contacted you. Everything you think you might explain away? They already have documents disproving your explanation.

How Loss Amount Determines Your Future

Federal sentencing isnt arbitrary. Its mechanical. And the machine runs on one primary input: how much money was involved.

The federal sentencing guidelines use something called the loss amount table. Heres were most people get blindsided - the loss amount isnt just the big check that caught attention. Its every check the government can connect to your scheme. Wrote fifty small checks over two years? They add them all up. Used multiple accounts? Combined. Different banks? Aggregated.

Heres the math that determines your life:

Loss of $6,500 to $15,000 adds 2 levels to your sentence. Loss of $15,000 to $40,000 adds 4 levels. Loss of $40,000 to $95,000 adds 6 levels. Loss of $95,000 to $150,000 adds 8 levels. Loss of $150,000 to $250,000 adds 10 levels. Loss of $250,000 to $550,000 adds 12 levels. And it keeps climbing.

Each level adds months or years to your sentence. By the time you cross $1 million in aggregated loss - which is much easier than you think when they're adding up every check over multiple years - you're looking at sentencing guidelines recommending 10 or more years in federal prison.

Let that sink in. The dollar amount you didnt even realize you'd hit determines whether you're gone for 3 years or 15 years. There is almost no judicial discretion. Judges follow these guidelines in the vast majority of cases becuase thats how the federal system works.

And the loss calculation includes intended loss, not just actual loss. If prosecutors can argue that your scheme was designed to take more than what you realy got, they calculate based on the larger number. Attempted fraud counts the same as completed fraud for sentencing purposes. The $50,000 you planned to get but didnt succeed in getting? It still adds to your guideline calculation.

The Stacking Effect: When One Check Becomes Dozens of Charges

If you think your exposure is just the check fraud charge, your about to have a very bad day in court.

Federal prosecutors are experts at stacking charges. Heres how a simple check fraud case becomes decades of potential prison time:

Bank fraud under 18 USC 1344 - 30 years per count. If any of those checks went through the mail, thats mail fraud under 18 USC 1341 - 20 years per count. If any electronic transfer was involved, wire fraud under 18 USC 1343 - 20 years. If you used anyone elses identity information, aggravated identity theft under 18 USC 1028A adds a mandatory 2 years that must run consecutively - meaning it stacks on top of your other sentence, it cant run at the same time.

And if prosecutors can show you laundered the proceeds - even just moving money between your own accounts to hide it - money laundering under 18 USC 1956 adds another 20 years exposure.

Sound familiar? This pattern plays out in case after case. The person who thought they were facing one charge suddenly finds themselves looking at an indictment with eight or ten counts, each carrying decades of prison time.

See the problem? The government structures cases this way deliberately. They pile on charges to force plea bargains. When your facing theoretical exposure of 100+ years, that 10-year plea offer starts to look reasonable - even if its destroying your life.

What Happens After Arrest: The Federal Difference

State court and federal court might as well be different planets. Everything you think you know about the criminal justice system probably comes from state court. Federal court operates by completly different rules.

First: bail is not guaranteed. In federal court, the presumption can flip against you. If prosecutors argue you're a flight risk due to money or resources, or that you're a danger to the community since you might commit more fraud, you can be held in pretrial detention. This means sitting in jail while your case proceeds - sometimes for a year or more before trial.

Second: there is no parole in the federal system. When you get a federal sentence, you serve at least 85% of it. A 10-year sentence means a minimum of 8.5 years in federal prison. Not a state prison near your family - a federal facility that could be anywhere in the country.

Third: asset forfeiture begins immediately. The government can seize anything connected to the fraud before you're even convicted. Bank accounts frozen. Cars seized. House put under forfeiture proceedings. You might find yourself unable to afford the defense lawyer you need - the government took all your assets before you could use them.

At Spodek Law Group we've seen clients lose everthing before their case even went to trial. The forfeiture process operates seperately from the criminal case and has a lower burden of proof.

Real Cases: What Actually Happened to Real People

This isnt theoretical. These are real people who faced real federal check fraud charges in 2024 and 2025.

David Motovich, Brooklyn - Ran what he thought was a clever check cashing business. Handled $55 million in checks, didnt report income properly, evaded taxes on the profits. Sentence: 15 years federal prison. But heres the part that destroyed him completly - forfeiture of $38 million, including his penthouse apartment with private swimming pool, commercial real estate buildings, and luxury jewelry. Everything he built over years, gone.

Kansas City Woman, 2025 - Stole U.S. Treasury tax refund checks and altered them to pay shell companies she controlled. Total take: $3 million. Sentence: 11 years federal prison. Not 11 months. Eleven years. She'll be eligible for release when she's in her late 50s at earliest.

Mobile Alabama Ring, June 2025 - Ten people conspired together on check fraud and identity theft involving postal workers. All ten sentenced to federal prison. When you work with other people, conspiracy charges stack on top. Every participant faces enhanced exposure - the government can attribute everyones actions to everyone else under conspiracy law.

Los Angeles Postal Worker, December 2025 - Former mail carrier who stole checks from mail and committed bank fraud. Sentence: 5 years federal prison. Five years of his life gone. A pension destroyed. A career ended. All for what seemed like easy money from stealing mail.

Notice the pattern? No probation. No house arrest. No community service. Federal prison, measured in years, every single time.

The Timeline Nobody Explains

What actualy happens in a federal check fraud investigation? Most people have no idea, which is exactly how the government wants it.

Month 1-3: Your bank files a SAR with FinCEN. You have no idea this happened. The SAR contains every detail of the suspicious activity - amounts, dates, account numbers, your personal information. This report sits in a federal database waiting to be noticed.

Month 3-6: FinCEN's pattern recognition flags your activity. The case gets assigned to an FBI field office, Secret Service, or IRS Criminal Investigation depending on the specifics. An agent begins pulling records. Still, you have no idea anything is happening.

Month 6-12: The agent subpoenas bank records from every institution where you have or had accounts. They interview tellers. They pull security camera footage. They trace every dollar. They build a timeline showing exactly what you did and when. You continue living your life, completely unaware.

Month 12-18: The agent presents the case to an Assistant U.S. Attorney. Together they decide whether to seek an indictment. Grand jury proceedings happen in secret - you wont know about them. The AUSA drafts an indictment charging multiple counts based on all the evidence gathered over the past year.

Month 18-24: One morning, federal agents appear at your door. They have an arrest warrant. Everything you planned to explain, they already have documents contradicting. The investigation that you thought just started? It finished months ago.

This is why the window for effective defense closes before most people know it opened. By the time you learn about the investigation, theres almost nothing left to investigate. The government already has everything they need.

What Happens to Your Life

The conviction is just the beginning of how check fraud destroys your future.

You will have a federal felony conviction for the rest of your life. This cannot be expunged. It cannot be sealed. Every background check for the rest of your existence will show federal bank fraud conviction.

Restitution cannot be discharged in bankruptcy. Whatever amount the court orders you to pay back, your stuck with it forever. They will garnish your wages at 25% when you get out. They will levy your bank accounts. They will intercept your tax refunds. This follows you until you pay every dollar or until you die.

Many professional licenses are automaticaly revoked with federal fraud convictions. If your in finance, banking, insurance, real estate, law, medicine - your career is likely over. Not suspended. Over.

And your relationships? As Todd Spodek has seen too many times, families dont always survive 8 or 10 years of federal incarceration. Spouses divorce. Children grow up without parents. By the time you're eligible for release, your entire life has moved on without you.

Heres something people definately dont think about: supervised release. After you finish your prison sentence, you face years of supervision. Violate the terms - which can include things like not maintaining employment or traveling without permission - and you go back to prison. The federal system doesnt let go easly.

The total consequence of a federal check fraud conviction is this: years in prison, followed by years of supervision, followed by a lifetime of a felony record, followed by debt that cant be discharged, followed by a career that no longer exists. This is not a temporary setback. This is a permanent restructuring of your entire existence.

What You Should Do Right Now

If your reading this because you think you might be under investigation for federal check fraud, the clock is running. Maybe its already run out. But maybe - maybe - there's still time.

The window for effective defense in federal check fraud cases is narrow and it closes before most people know it exists. The best outcomes happen when defense counsel gets involved during the investigation phase, before indictment, when theres still room to negotiate with prosecutors about what charges get filed or whether charges get filed at all.

Once your indicted, your options narrow dramaticaly. Once your convicted, they almost disappear.

Think about were you are right now. If you found this page by searching for information about federal check fraud charges, theres a reason you did that search. Something happened. Maybe you recieved a call from a federal agent. Maybe your bank account was frozen unexpectadly. Maybe someone told you the FBI was asking questions about you. Maybe you just have a wierd feeling that something is wrong.

That instinct? Trust it. People dont search for federal check fraud defense at 11pm because everything is fine.

Every day you wait is a day the government uses to build a stronger case. Every bank transaction you make is potentialy being monitored. Every person you talk to about the situation could be interviewed by federal agents. Every attempt to move money or close accounts creates more evidence of consciousness of guilt.

They had months or years to prepare. You might have days. Maybe hours.

This is the reality of federal check fraud charges. Not the version that makes you feel better. Not the version that lets you sleep at night. The version that represents what realy happens when the federal government decides to prosecute you.

What seprates the people who survive federal charges from the people who get crushed by them? Usually one thing: getting proper legal representation before it was too late. Not after indictment. Not after arrest. Before.

The next 48 hours could determine the next 20 years. If you're facing federal check fraud charges or beleive you might be under investigation, call Spodek Law Group at 212-300-5196. The consultation is free. The conversation is confidential. And it might be the most important phone call you ever make.

They had years to build their case against you. Use the time you have left wisely.