New York Man Sentenced to 30 Months for Involvement in a Scheme to Steal Checks and Defraud Banks

A Brooklyn, New York man was sentenced on February 18, 2026 to 30 months in prison for his role in a scheme to steal and alter checks from the mail and fraudulently obtain funds from banks by depositing the stolen and altered checks into bank accounts fraudulently accessed by others, senior counsel Philip Lamparello announced.

Noah Aranzamendi, 27, of Brooklyn, New York, previously pled guilty in July 2025 before U.S. District Judge Edward Kiel in Camden federal court to a two-count indictment with conspiracy to commit bank fraud and the receipt and possession of stolen mail.

According to documents filed in these cases and statements made in Court:

From February 2020 to February 2022, Aranzamendi conspired with others to steal checks from the mail in Bergen County and elsewhere, which he then sold to third parties or deposited, sometimes in altered or duplicate form, into the bank accounts of complicit accountholders who had provided access to their bank accounts for the scheme. Aranzamendi obtained stolen official USPS arrow keys, which Aranzamendi used to access mail and steal checks directly from USPS boxes. Aranzamendi and his conspirators then targeted the accounts associated with the checks he stole and created false identifications in the names of the accountholders, which he and his conspirators used to make fraudulent withdrawals from those accounts. The scheme resulted in losses to victims of at least $240,213.

This conviction is Aranzamendi's fifth conviction arising out of similar schemes.

Senior Counsel Lamparello credited postal inspectors of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Newark, under the direction of Postal Inspector in Charge Christopher A. Nielsen, Philadelphia Division; and special agents with the U.S. Postal Service - Office of Inspector General, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Matthew Modafferi, Northeast Area Field Office. He also thanked the Teaneck Police Department under Chief Andrew R. McGurr.

The government is represented by Assistant United States Attorney Rachelle M. Navarro of the Bank Integrity, Money Laundering, and Recovery Unit in Newark.

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Defense counsel for Aranzamendi: Ikram Ally, Esq.