GLENWOOD WOMAN ENTERS PLEA TO COUNTERFEIT CHECK CHARGE

Augusta, Georgia: Edmund A. Booth, Jr., Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, announced today that April Elaine McKinney of Glenwood, Georgia, entered a guilty plea in United States District Court in Statesboro, Georgia to one count of possessing a counterfeit check with the intent to defraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 513(a).

During the change-of-plea hearing held on March 19, 2007, before U.S. District Judge B. Avant Edenfield, the evidence established that on March 14, 2006, McKinney attempted to deposit a $112,544 counterfeit check into her account at Montgomery Bank & Trust in Vidalia, Georgia. The evidence further established that, at the time McKinney attempted to deposit the counterfeit check, she owed approximately $94,000 to Harton Automotive Group in Vidalia, Georgia for two vehicles purchased in February 2006. In purported payment for those vehicles, McKinney had provided two insufficiently funded checks to Harton Automotive Group, including one the same day she attempted to deposit the counterfeit $112,544.00 check at Montgomery Bank & Trust. The counterfeit check was intended to cover those two insufficiently funded checks.

The maximum statutory penalty for the conviction of possessing a counterfeit check with the intent to defraud is not more than ten (10) years imprisonment and a fine of not more than $250,000. A sentencing date will be scheduled following completion of a pre-sentence investigation and report.

The investigation was conducted by the Vidalia Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Government is represented by R. Brian Tanner, Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia.

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