CAMDEN, N.J. - A Mount Laurel man admitted to engaging in a scheme to defraud banks using checks stolen from the U.S. mail and fraudulent debit cards, Senior Counsel Philip Lamparello announced.

Kharon Parson-Wright, 28, of Mount Laurel, New Jersey, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Edward S. Kiel to an information charging him with one count of conspiring to commit bank fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

Parson-Wright conspired with Yasmene Johnson, Dante Ford, and others to commit bank fraud with checks stolen from the U.S. mail. Parson-Wright, Ford, and others stole U.S. mail from blue U.S. mail collection boxes. Ford and other members of the conspiracy then created counterfeit versions of the stolen checks or altered the stolen checks by increasing the value of the checks and changing the name of the payee either to a member of the conspiracy or somebody else recruited by the conspiracy. Parson-Wright admitted that he and others negotiated the counterfeit or altered checks and then attempted to the withdraw the funds before the bank learned that the checks were illegitimate. The conspiracy involved the negotiation of checks at banks across southern New Jersey and elsewhere, with checks written for tens of thousands dollars.

As a separate part of their conspiracy, Parson-Wright connected Johnson with a bank employee who created fraudulent debit cards in the name of victims who held accounts at the bank. Parson-Wright and his co-conspirator used one of the fraudulently issued debit cards to make purchases and ATM withdrawals in New Jersey. Parson-Wright admitted that the bank fraud conspiracy resulted in actual losses exceeding $424,000 and intended losses exceeding $1,500,000.

The count of conspiracy carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $1,000,000, or twice the gross loss to the victim or gain to the defendant, whichever is greatest. The count of aggravated identity theft carries a statutory mandatory penalty of two years in prison, which must run consecutively to any other term of imprisonment, and a fine of $250,000, or twice the gross loss to the victim or gain to the defendant, whichever is greatest. Sentencing is scheduled for April 20, 2026.

Johnson previously pleaded guilty to the same two offenses for her role in the conspiracy and is scheduled to be sentenced in March 2026. Ford and three other defendants were previously sentenced in 2025 after pleading guilty to participating in the same bank fraud conspiracy: Ford was sentenced to 27 months' incarceration, Donovan Bunch was sentenced to 33 months, Tracy Felder-Carter was sentenced to 18 months, and Quamell Keyes-Griffin was sentenced to 18 months.

Senior Counsel Lamparello credited postal inspectors of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service - Philadelphia Division, under the direction of Inspector in Charge Christopher A. Nielsen, with the investigation leading to this plea. He also thanked the Mount Laurel Police Department, under the direction of Chief Timothy Hudnall, for its valuable assistance in the investigation.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Bender of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Camden.

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Defense counsel: Justin Capek, Esq., Mount Laurel, New Jersey