ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A 26-year-old man is headed to prison for his role in a financial fraud scheme involving stolen checks.
Sheldon Marquis Adams was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Adams worked with others to get hundreds of checks stolen from postal service mailboxes in Rochester.
RELATED: Former basketball player pleads guilty related to bank fraud scheme involving stolen checks (Nov. 25, 2025)
According to prosecutors, Adams and the others would use social media to get people to cash or deposit the checks into their own accounts and withdraw the money before the issuing bank detected fraud.
If the checks were cashed they were given to Adams and the others, and in return, the people who cashed them got a small payment.
Prosecutors say there were stolen and altered checks totaling over $516,000.
Adams used to play basketball at Bishop Kearney, later playing for Buffalo State.
THE TD BANK INSIDER “BRIBE-FOR-DATA” SCHEME (USA)
Date: February 17, 2026 Perpetrator: Edward Low (Former Bank Employee)
Case Description: In a high-profile case of “Insider Threat,” Edward Low, a former employee of TD Bank in New York, pleaded guilty in a New Jersey federal court to accepting bribes in exchange for confidential customer data. Between 2021 and 2022, Low leveraged his internal access to harvest the personal details of high-balance account holders. He then sold this “hot data” to external fraud syndicates for as little as $26,700 in personal kickbacks.
The external fraudsters used the information Low provided to conduct “Account Takeovers” (ATO), creating fraudulent checks and falsifying bank records to drain over $500,000 from unsuspecting customers. Low even went as far as helping co-conspirators open shell company accounts at a second financial institution where he was later employed. He now faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison. This case has sent shockwaves through the global banking sector, highlighting that even the most robust external firewalls cannot protect against a “rogue insider” with administrative credentials.
Link to Original: US Dept of Justice – TD Bank Insider Plea