Man tied to theft of guns from ex-chief gets 13 years

A Kingston man has been indicted by an Ulster County grand jury on charges he was in possession of forged payroll checks and credit cards during a traffic stop on the Thruway.

DeAndre H. Green, 20, was indicted Nov. 5 on two counts of scheme to defraud and 25 counts of possession of a forged instrument, all felonies, according to the Ulster County District Attorney’s Office. He and another man were arrested on Feb. 15, 2017, on the Thruway.

Between October 2016 and January 2017, according to the District Attorney’s Office, Green used social media to recruit people to participate in a scheme to defraud many businesses and banks in the area. He started out by stealing checks from mailboxes and then solicited people on various social media sites to open bank accounts and provide him with their banking information, the prosecutor’s office said. He also is accused of soliciting people to provide him copies of their payroll checks, which he would use as a template to create fraudulent checks.

Green tried to deposit checks totaling almost $25,000 from 10 separate people and businesses, the DA’s office said. It’s estimated Green recruited more than 65 people who became involved in the scheme and tried to deposit checks that totaled nearly $800,000.

Green currently is serving two to six years in prison for a felony robbery conviction in Dutchess County and four years in prison for a conviction in Albany County.