Check Forgers Hoist On Their Own Petard

SALT LAKE CITY – Nine suspects were charged yesterday with running a counterfeit check ring that created bogus business checks and cashed them at most of the city’s major credit unions and banks. The ring messed up though, when they tried to pass a check using the signature of the federal prosecutor who had signed previous papers charging the ringleader with forgery. The defendant in both cases is 38-year-old Justine Coppolino. Coppolino apparently scanned the prosecutor’s signature off the old document and used it on a counterfeit check, authorities said. The group created high-quality fake checks on home computers which were cashed at Mountain America FCU, America First FCU, Zions Bank, Wells Fargo and Chase Bank, among others. In all, 83 phony checks were cashed for more than $70,000. The group made out the checks to themselves, then cashed them at grocery stores or other businesses. The authorizing signatures on the checks were scanned in signatures of real people, including the CEO of one local credit union and the former chairman of the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole.