The North Royalton Police Department has recommended that residents pay close attention to their bank accounts and cashed checks, to be sure that the checks were cashed by those who were intended, as residents in North Royalton and in other communities continue to fall victim to check fraud.
One North Royalton resident recently reported that he sent his check to pay a credit card bill, but came to find that the check had been altered by thousands of dollars and deposited into a local bank and cashed. He said that the amounts and payee information was whited out and new information written in. That case is currently being investigated.
Late last year, Destiny Mulugata, a 24-year-old employee of the North Royalton Post Office, was charged with Theft and Forgery, after the North Royalton Police Department, who had been investigating the case for about a year, turned over the information to the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor. She was arrested in December of 2022, charged with theft in office, theft and nineteen counts of Forgery. On April 11, 2023 she pleaded not guilty. On September 20, she withdrew her not guilty plea and then pleaded guilty to Telecommunications Fraud, Grand Theft and Forgery, and Forging Identification Cards. The remaining counts were removed. She was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $33,273.05 to eleven victims. On September 27, she was sentenced to five years of community control/probation and to the following conditions: 60 days in jail, which can be served on weekends until 4:30 p.m. on Sundays.
On September 15, Rebecca C. Lutzko, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, announced that a federal grand jury sitting in Cleveland returned a sixteen-count indictment charging seven men with Mail Fraud, Aggravated Identity Theft, Conspiracy to Commit Bank Fraud, and Wire Fraud. The indictments came after a joint investigation by the North Royalton Police Department, Highland Heights Police Department, Brooklyn Heights Police Department, Shaker Heights Police Department and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph P. Dangelo.
The arrests of the seven men, who are all in their 20s, took place on September 11, 2023, after they turned themselves in to the U.S. Marshals. “The seven individuals were indicted for their roles in a check-fraud scheme in which checks were stolen from the U.S. mail and altered or forged, then deposited into various accounts for withdrawal. These arrests follow guilty pleas by eleven other defendants involved in similar criminal activities throughout the Northern District of Ohio,” according to Lutzko. “The United States Attorney’s Office will continue to work with the United States Postal Inspection Service and other state and local partners to aggressively prosecute criminals who steal from the U.S. Mail and abuse our community’s banks.”
North Royalton Police Department Detective Jim Nubbie is one of several detectives in North Royalton who are investigating mail fraud. Nubbie was the detective on the Mulugata case, as well as the case of these recent indictments. He has been investigating mail theft and fraud complaints since July. “We get fraud cases every day,” said Nubbie. He said that this latest group was connected to a previous indictment, that took place last year, but not to the Mulugata case.
In the latest indictments, Nubbie said that there were dozens of banks involved and many cases, some with multiple victims. Some were digital transactions through mobile payment services. Hundreds of subpoenas have been issued in order to get data, such as video and transactional data. “It was pretty extensive,” said Nubbie.
On the recent indictments, Nubbie stated that, “I’m glad it got some kind of outcome. There are presently other investigations that are continually taking place.” In the meantime, residents who think they may have been victims should contact the North Royalton Police immediately at 440-237-8686. “If you are a victim of fraud, you should report it as soon as possible, as the retention restrictions of banks could have passed,” said Nubbie.

By GLORIA PLEVA KACIK
Contributing Writer