Australian National Sentenced to 66 Months in Prison for $2.7 million Fraudulent Check Scheme

ST. LOUIS - U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp on Friday sentenced a woman to 66 months in prison for using the stolen identities of others to attempt to deposit $2.7 million in fraudulent and stolen checks.

Gabrielle Borthwick, 23, opened, or tried to open, accounts at a series of banks and credit unions in Missouri and elsewhere by depositing bogus cashier's checks ranging in value from $121,260 to $1.4 million. Borthwick admitted fraudulently using the names, birthdates and Social Security numbers of multiple people, as well as counterfeit out-of-state driver's licenses, to open the accounts.

To dispel concerns about the out-of-state licenses, Borthwick falsely claimed to have recently moved to Missouri. She supplied fake utility and phone bills to support her claims. She sometimes claimed to run a wedding planning business to allay bank officials' suspicions about the size of the checks. She also tried to cover up tattoos and distinguishing characteristics by wearing clothing and bandages, Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin Ladendorf wrote in a sentencing memo. Borthwick then tried to withdraw cash or electronically transfer funds before the financial institutions realized that the checks were fraudulent.

In total, Borthwick admitted depositing checks at multiple Missouri banks and credit unions and at one bank in Illinois totaling $2.7 million. Bank officials thwarted her attempts to open some accounts or deposit some of the bogus checks. She fraudulently obtained $271,667. One of those checks, in the amount of $30,000, had been stolen from the mail. Judge Schelp ordered her to repay the money.

Borthwick, who is a native of Australia, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis in September to 12 felonies: six counts of financial institution fraud and six counts of aggravated identity theft.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations, the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, and police departments in Eureka, O'Fallon and Union in Missouri and Edwardsville in Illinois investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin Ladendorf prosecuted the case.