Check And Credit Card Scammer Sentenced to Five Years in Federal Prison for Bank and Wire Fraud

DOJ Press

Baltimore, Maryland – U.S. District Judge Stephanie A. Gallagher sentenced Warren Tillery, age 46, of Atlanta, Georgia and previously of Baltimore to five years in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release, for conspiracy to commit mail and bank fraud.  Judge Gallagher also ordered Tillery to pay $166,860 in restitution to victim financial institutions.

The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Erek L. Barron and Postal Inspector in Charge Greg L. Torbenson of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service – Washington Division.

According to his plea agreement, from 2015 to February 2018, Tillery led a conspiracy to engage in a mail and bank fraud scheme designed to steal money from federally insured financial institutions in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Georgia, and elsewhere.

Tillery led and organized a conspiracy that initially focused on stealing checks written by victim businesses and individuals from United States Postal Service mail receptacles.  As part of the scheme to defraud, Tillery obtained a stolen U.S. Postal Service key that opened mail receptacles in the Baltimore area.  He then provided this key to co-conspirators who were recruited to steal mail and provide stolen checks to Tillery.  Tillery altered the stolen checks or created fraudulent checks that displayed the victim’s account information and instruct co-conspirators to cash the fraudulently obtained checks made out to them in exchange for a portion of the proceeds.  In addition to his check theft conspiracy, Tillery made counterfeit money orders and credit cards to use as secondary identification for check cashing and to make purchases.


As stated in his plea agreement, on February 2, 2018, a search warrant was executed at Tillery’s Atlanta-area home.  As a result of the executed search warrant, investigators recovered card manufacturing equipment, $4,000 in cash, and hundreds of credit cards in his and others’ names encoded with stolen credit card information.  Agents also recovered stolen credit card information, recently stolen U.S. Postal Service mail tubs, social security cards and driver’s licenses that belonged to other people, and hundreds of blank money orders and stolen checks.


Tillery’s fraud conspiracy caused at least $180,269 in losses to more than 30 victim businesses and 15 federally insured financial institutions.  In total, Tillery personally obtained at least $30,000 from the conspiracy.

United States Attorney Erek L. Barron praised the USPIS and the Harford County Sheriff’s Office for their work in the investigation.  Mr. Barron thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam K. Ake and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Hamilton, who prosecuted the case.

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to report fraud, please visit www.justice.gov/usao-md and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/report-fraud .

# # #

You appear to be using an ad blocker

Shore News Network is a free website that does not use paywalls or charge for access to original, breaking news content. In order to provide this free service, we rely on advertisements. Please support our journalism by disabling your ad blocker for this website.