Pennsylvania Man Sentenced to Prison for Bank Fraud Conspiracy
Apr 30, 2025
U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Ohio
CLEVELAND – A Pennsylvania man was sentenced to 24 months in prison by U.S. District Court Judge Bridget Meehan Brennan after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud.
Marquise A. Billy, 31, of Long Pond, was also ordered to serve five years of supervised release after imprisonment. Additionally, he was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $107,800.
According to court documents, Billy collaborated with a co-conspirator, Rodney A. Martin, 62, of the Bronx, New York, to carry out a criminal scheme to find banks where they could cash fake checks. On Oct. 12, 2022, the two took a flight from New York to Ohio. After arriving in Columbus, Billy rented a car and the two proceeded to drive throughout the state to cash fraudulent checks at banks they had pre-selected to target. Billy provided Martin with counterfeit United States passport identification cards of 14 individuals to use as ID to cash checks. Martin rotated through the IDs and used a different one at each bank transaction. Using this tactic, Martin was able to fraudulently cash checks at several financial institutions in amounts ranging from $4,500 to $5,500.
During the investigation, authorities discovered that the defendants, had in fact, made multiple trips to Ohio and elsewhere to carry out their conspiracy to commit bank fraud. The two men visited 21 bank locations where Martin cashed fraudulent checks using the fake IDs that Billy provided. In the Northern District of Ohio, the banks targeted were located in Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Geauga, Portage, Trumbull, and Wayne Counties. In total, Billy and Martin stole $107,800 from several community banks.
On Feb. 6, 2024, U.S. District Court Judge John R. Adams sentenced Martin to 30 months in prison and five years of supervised release after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and aggravated identity theft.
This case was investigated by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, the Social Security Administration-Office of the Inspector General, the Geauga County Sheriff’s Office, and the New York City Police Department.
The case was prosecuted by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason W. White.
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