A Wisconsin woman walked into a Cheyenne bank, faked someone else’s identity and tried to cash a nearly $1 million check from the federal government, according to court documents filed Tuesday in federal court.
Charged with forgery against the United States, Pamela Kubesh, 55, could face up to 10 years in prison and $250,000 in fines if convicted.
The investigation started Monday when Special Agent Bradley Peters of the office of the U.S. Treasury Inspector General Tax Administration heard from an employee at the WyHy Federal Credit Union, says an affidavit filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for Wyoming.
The banker said a woman who identified herself by a name — identified in court documents by the initials NJR — walked into the bank at 1715 Stillwater Ave. in Cheyenne and created a bank account under the NJR name.
She presented a California driver’s license in the name of NJR, bearing a photograph that looked like her, says the affidavit.
She then allegedly presented a U.S. Treasury check made payable to NJR of Los Angeles, California, for $985,020.
Peters has since confirmed through IRS databases that the U.S. Treasury did issue a check with that serial number and amount to NJR of Los Angeles on March 26, says the document.
Cheyenne Police Department obtained the check and showed it to Peters. It looked to the special agent as if one of the four lines detailing the payee information had been removed, reportedly.
Cheyenne officers went to the bank and interviewed the woman purporting to be NJR of California. The affidavit says they later identified that woman as Pamela Kubesh of Wisconsin.
The credit union accepted the check Kubesh had given and placed a hold on it pending further inquiries, says the affidavit.
These Guys
Kubesh admitted to forging the name on the nearly $1 million check, according to a Cheyenne Police Department call log narrative.
She said two other, unidentified males gave her the check and admitted to placing a male on the checking account as her nephew, though he was not her nephew, the narrative says.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Margaret M. Vierbuchen, the case prosecutor, is asking the court’s permission to keep Kubesh in jail during her prosecution.
Vierbuchen’s Tuesday motion for a detention hearing says there’s a “serious risk” Kubesh will flee if released.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
