This one is being filed under “Not So Serious”, simply because this genius was in jail when he was arrested for serious financial crimes, and well, it made me laugh.
A Florida man was arrested on multiple felonies Thursday after an investigation found he cashed or tried to cash thousands of dollars worth of stolen business checks.
“This was terrific work by our Financial Crimes detectives connecting the suspect to these crimes,” Sheriff Kevin Rambosk said.
Beshoy Habashi, 40, of Estero, is charged with two counts of grand theft $750-$5,000, two counts of uttering a forged instrument, and one count of impersonation.
Detectives said Habashi went to multiple bank locations in Collier County and presented business checks that were stolen from the U.S. Postal Service mail.
He successfully cashed a business check for $1,980.88 that was mailed to another business on Exchange Avenue.
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He tried to cash a check for $2,390 that was mailed to a business on Progress Avenue, but was unsuccessful after a bank manager became suspicious. When the manager told Habashi she needed to verify the validity of the check, he became agitated and demanded the check back.
She told him she couldn’t return the check until she verified it. Habashi left the bank, leaving the check and his driver’s license behind.
The manager contacted the business that wrote the check and learned her hunch was right: Habashi was not authorized to cash it. The check was originally written for $10,000; it had been “washed” to change the dollar amount to $2,390 and to make it payable to Habashi instead of the intended business.
Habashi is shown on bank security camera videos attempting to cash both stolen checks.
While financial crimes investigations are typically complex and time-consuming, detectives didn’t have too hard of a time finding Habashi to arrest him, according to deputies.
Detectives located him at the Collier County jail Thursday where he had been staying since his arrest Wednesday on an unrelated criminal mischief charge following an incident at the Seminole Casino in Immokalee.
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