Two Arrested in Alleged Check 'Kiting' Scheme

Two men were arrested at Darien Bank and Trust on Thursday after a fraudulent withdrawal attempt brought an end to their check "kiting" scheme, according to .

Mohamed Ghanem, 60, of Astoria, N.Y. and Mohamed Abdelrahman, 54, of Flushing, N.Y. were charged with second degree larceny, two counts of third degree larceny, conspiracy to third degree larceny, criminal attempt to fifth degree larceny, and sixth degree larceny.

Both men are being held on $200,000 bond and are set to appear in court Friday.

According to a statement from Det. Mark Cappelli, officers responded to Darien Bank and Trust (777 Post Rd.) around 9:39 a.m. Thursday when employees notified them of an attempt by Ghanem and Abdelrahman to withdraw money from an account with insufficient funds. The pair reportedly tried to take out amounts of $600 and $200 from the bank's ATM before approaching a teller to check their account balance.

Bank employees contacted police because officials from Greenwich Bank and Trust had alerted them to an earlier attempt by Ghanem and Abdelrahman to pass fraudulent checks, Cappelli said.

Bank records showed that the pair had opened an account in Greenwich on June 7 using more than $6,000 in checks from other institutions, he said, but the accounts associated with the checks later turned out to be closed or to lack sufficient funds.

Abdelrahman then deposited some $4,000 to the account at Darien Bank and Trust on July 11, according to Cappelli, but the checks used in that transaction were also found to be invalid.

During their investigation, detectives reportedly turned up evidence of a similar incident at Darien Rowayton Bank.

On June 14, Cappelli said, Ghanem and Abdelrahman opened two accounts at the branch using more than $10,000 in invalid checks. They were later able to withdraw over $2,800 over a two-day period, he said.

Ghanem and Abdelrahman are believed responsible for similar incidents in Greenwich, Stamford, and Norwalk, Cappelli said, and have been specifically connected to a 2010 incident in Norwalk.

Cappelli described the alleged scheme as "kiting," in which "money is deposited into accounts utilizing checks from other checking accounts which are either closed or lack sufficient funds."

"The perpetrators then withdraw the money before the banking institutions realize that the funds are not available," he said in the statement.