A man has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for his role in a scheme to deposit forged checks at a Normal bank and then withdraw the money from ATMs before the bad checks could be discovered.
Reginald Cooper was convicted of organizing a continuing financial crime enterprise, a Class X felony. He was arrested in May and convicted earlier this month. He was sentenced Friday, court records show.
Cooper’s scheme involved having people open multiple checking accounts and then depositing the forged checks, then withdrawing the cash. The scheme ran from July 2016 to May 2017, McLean County State’s Attorney Jason Chambers said. Cooper was accused of stealing $2,750 during the trial.
The State of Illinois has made this offense carry a higher penalty because the nature of it involves drawing other individuals into criminal activity when those individuals may not otherwise be involved in breaking the law, Chambers said.
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