Georgia man charged in Johnson County with theft and forgery

A Georgia man was arrested Thursday in Johnson County on charges he and others worked to forge and cash more than $13,000 worth of checks, with help from people recruited from homeless shelters and food banks.

Mikal McCarty, 35, of Decatur, Ga., is charged with first-degree theft, conspiracy to commit a nonforcible felony and 10 counts of forgery.

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According to criminal complaints, McCarty and at least five other people used stolen bank account information to print and cash forged checks in Eastern Iowa between July 11 and July 12, 2023.

They did this by recruiting people from shelters and community food pantries in Eastern Iowa to cash the checks for them, the complaints show. They would buy the recruited subjects clothes and burner phones and offer them $150 per day to attempt to cash fake checks that the group printed in the recruited person’s name. They also provided specific instructions about what to say and how to act when cashing the checks, the complaints state.

The amount on the checks ranged from $1,800 to $2,900, and the group attempted to cash them at banks in Iowa City, Nichols, Lone Tree, Coralville, North Liberty, La Porte City and Vinton.

Four checks were cashed successfully during the two days, for a total of $13,230.13. The group was unsuccessful in cashing checks at four other locations, and four more forged checks that weren’t cashed were found in a vacation rental home in Cedar Rapids that had been rented by someone in the group.

The other members of the group besides McCarty were not named in the criminal complaints.

“Based on interviews of the defendants who physically passed the checks, this group likely passed or attempted to pass many other checks throughout Iowa and other states,” a complaint states.

A warrant for McCarty’s arrest was issued in November, and he was booked Thursday into the Johnson County Jail. He had his first appearance in court Friday and was being held on a $24,000 bail.

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