Check fraud leader sentenced

Assistant U.S. Attorney Neil Smith wrote in a sentencing memorandum that Sharon Laverne Rivers and her crew printed up fake payroll checks and cashed them at Walmart stores in eight states, including Tennessee, Georgia, Kentucky, Alabama and Florida. He also noted Rivers was on probation at the time for similar crimes in South Carolina. The ring was exposed last year when police in Bristol, Tenn., nabbed Rivers after she tried and failed to cash a bogus check at a Walmart there. She eventually led authorities to her cohorts, who are awaiting sentencing, and that fact led Greer on Monday to shave a few months off the sentence called for under federal sentencing guidelines.

Posted in: Check Fraud