A Bronx man, Paul Keenan, has been sentenced in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island for his involvement in a bank fraud conspiracy. Acting United States Attorney Sara Miron Bloom announced the sentencing today.
Keenan, aged 54, received a sentence of 24 months of incarceration followed by three years of supervised release. He was charged and arrested in August 2024 and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud in February.
Court documents reveal that Keenan worked with other conspirators to recruit individuals and obtain their photographs and personal identifying information (PII). This information was used to create fraudulent IDs featuring the co-conspirators’ photographs alongside the recruits’ PII.
The scheme involved acquiring PII from at least 28 individuals, including names, dates of birth, addresses, Social Security numbers, and bank account details. Additionally, they obtained information from at least 20 business entities. Using this data, they created fake IDs and checks.
Keenan and his associates traveled with recruits to banks across Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and eight other states to cash counterfeit checks. Their efforts aimed to defraud banks out of approximately $143,000; they successfully defrauded twenty-two banks of about $93,200.
Assistant United States Attorney Christine Lowell prosecuted the case with help from Assistant United States Attorney Sandra Hebert. The investigation was conducted by Homeland Security Investigations and the East Providence Police Department with assistance from the Portsmouth Police Department.
