Utah Man Says He Was Recruited in Wyoming to Obtain $13K in Cash Using Fake Checks

A Utah man wearing a camouflage hoodie with a Ford logo, baggy jeans and a black beanie stopped to smoke a cigarette in front of a bank in Afton, Wyoming, one afternoon in mid-September.

He then walked down the sidewalk and toward the Bank of Star Valley, pulled a check from his hoodie pocket and handed it to the teller.

He also took his wallet from the back pocket of his jeans and removed his identification card to show the teller, then folded the card back into the wallet and put it back in his pocket, court documents state from bank surveillance video.

The teller gave him $3,418.26 and the man left the bank at 12:37 a.m. Sept. 19, according to an evidentiary affidavit in the theft and forgery case later filed against 34-year-old Nicholas R. Boschetti.

The affidavit states Boschetti’s next stop was It was the Thayne branch of the Bank of Star Valley that day, and as he walked from a grocery store parking lot towards the building, this time he walked holding the cash register in his hand.

The man allegedly cashed a check for $4,281.13 at around 1:14 p.m., wearing the same casual attire, the document alleges.

Next, He approached the Alpine branch of the same bank and pulled a check for $5,318.42 from his hoodie pocket.

The teller needed help with this.

He signaled the branch manager to help him because the bank would need to take special precautions because more than $10,000 had been emptied in a single day from the account said to belong to an Alpine Standard gas station, according to court documents.

Ultimately, The teller scanned the check through the bank’s system and obtained a copy of Boschetti’s driver’s license, the affidavit states.

HE There was $5,318.42 left over that day, the document continues, and a total of $13,017.81 has now been withdrawn from the account through three different banks in Lincoln County.

Gone

Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Carson Wagstaff A. call from the bank at 3:30 p.m. The Alpine branch’s bank manager told Wagstaff that it takes time to verify check fraud. affidavit he says.

The manager was busy collecting surveillance video and copies of checks for the inspector.

When Boschetti cashed the third check and followed its policy of documenting his driver’s license and contacting the account holder, the bank acted cautiously.

When bankers contacted the gas station owner, he said the checks were fraudulent: He kept the checks locked up and never gave Boschetti, whom he did not know, permission to cash the checks, the affidavit said.

When the gas station owner sent Wagstaff photos of his own business checks, they were “similar (but) different” from the checks Boschetti was accused of cashing.

By then, Wagstaff believed Boschetti was no longer in Lincoln County, and the local court issued a warrant for his arrest.

Just My Day Job

Authorities detained Boschetti until at least October 30, and he appeared in court on November 1. His case was later moved to Lincoln County District Court at the felony level, where he is scheduled for trial on March 10.

And on Nov. 4, Boschetti sent a handwritten letter to the judge, saying he was just a pawn in a check fraud scheme.

“This Nicholas Boschetti himself writes about what happened,” he says Notesin capital letters on blue paper.

Boschetti told the court that the day before the check cashing, a man in Salt Lake City approached Boschetti and offered him a job cashing checks for accounts payable after work for a construction company was completed.

“He told me all I had to do was cash a few checks in my name and … nothing else comes of this,” the letter says.

He claims someone took him to each bank in a gray Hyundai with Florida plates.

“I was told the checks were not fraudulent,” Boschetti wrote. “I didn’t create these checks and I don’t know how to.”

Boschetti added: “I was used.”

Boschetti’s letter calls on authorities to review surveillance video from a motel on North Temple Street in Utah where the driver “dropped him off.” Perhaps they could find the vehicle’s license plate number, make and model, and corroborate his account of events, he noted.

Boschetti also wrote down a phone number attributed to a phone he said the deceptive employer allowed him to use.

The Cowboy State Daily called the phone number on Thursday and a robot operator said the call could not be made due to the phone’s “limitations.”

Boschetti also wrote down the name of a man to whom he believed the number was registered.

“I hope this name sounds familiar or possibly a former employee of Alpine Standard,” Boschetti wrote. “He seemed to know what he was doing and didn’t want to approach the bank.”

if convicted

Boschetti faces six expensesEach faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. These include three counts of felony theft and three counts of felony forgery. His case continues.

Clair McFarland can be reached at [email protected].