3 sentenced in scheme to deposit fake Treasury check at Cheyenne bank

CASPER, Wyo. — Three people were sentenced in federal court in connection with a scheme to pass a counterfeit U.S. Treasury check at a Cheyenne bank in April last year, according to a release by the U.S. Justice Department for the District of Wyoming.

The release also announced the sentence for a previously deported noncitizen who will serve a sentence in Texas before being deported.

Financial Crimes

Ashley M. Patton-Spencer of University Park, Illinois, was sentenced to 20 months’ imprisonment with 2 years of supervised release for aiding and abetting the passing and uttering of a counterfeit U.S. obligation, the release said.

Patton-Spencer, 37, pleaded guilty to recruiting a woman to use a false name and false identification to open a bank account in Cheyenne and deposit the counterfeit U.S. Treasury check on April 8, 2024. That defendant, 56-year-old Pamela Kubesh of Lake Tomahawk, Wisconsin, was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment with three years of supervised release.

Colorado Springs resident Dwayne Rogers, Jr. 22, pleaded guilty to his role in providing Kubesh with a false name and false identification to open the bank account and driving his co-conspirators to the bank, the release said. He was sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment with three years of supervised release for aiding and abetting the passing and uttering of a counterfeit U.S. obligation. 

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration and the Cheyenne Police Department investigated the crime. U.S. District Court Judge Alan B. Johnson imposed the three sentences over the last two weeks in Cheyenne.  

Illegal Reentry of a Previously Deported Alien

Luis Angel Giron-Zavala, 32, of Guanajuato, Mexico, was sentenced to six months of imprisonment to be followed by one year of unsupervised release with the condition that he not illegally return to the United States, the release said.

Giron-Zavala will be returned to the State of Texas to finish serving a separate sentence, and then he will be deported from the United States.

According to court documents, on March 24, 2024, Giron-Zavala was arrested by the Wyoming Highway Patrol in Sheridan County on a state warrant from Texas. Deputies from the Sheridan County Jail notified Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, that Giron-Zavala claimed to be a citizen of Mexico.

Agents with ICE determined that he had not applied for permission to reenter after being formally removed in April 2018. ICE investigated the crime, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Cameron J. Cook prosecuted the case. U.S. District Court Judge Alan B. Johnson imposed the sentence on March 7 in Cheyenne. Case No. 24-CR-00177

– U.S. Justice Department, District of Wyoming