A member of a popular Washington-area band and former clerk in the finance office of the YMCA of Metropolitan Washington is expected to plead guilty to stealing nearly $145,000 by cashing 33 checks he took from the nonprofit human services organization, court records show.
Eric Sean Curry Jr. is a member of Uncalled4 — a 10-member band that plays at Washington-area clubs — and used a network of 14 friends to cash the YMCA checks he issued, court documents filed in the District’s federal court said. After cashing the checks, Curry’s friends would send him a cut. He allegedly ran the scheme from February 2007 to December 2007.
Calls to Curry’s attorney on Thursday were not returned. He has been charged by information, a court procedure that typically means the defendant will plead guilty. No date has been set for his plea to be entered, court records show.
The Washington YMCA branch is the 17th-largest in the country and provides financial assistance to about 13,000 families and individuals.
As a YMCA finance clerk, Curry was responsible for issuing checks to vendors, charging documents said. The job granted Curry access to a signature stamp that was used to approve checks to vendors for less than $5,000. According to authorities, Curry stole the 33 checks from a supervisor’s office and then used the stamp to approve them.
The checks ranged from $2,700 to $4,860 and were distributed to recipients who cashed them and then gave Curry as much as a 75 percent cut, court documents said. Each of the alleged 14 check cashers had to provide a photo identification or Social Security number to cash the checks. None of the check cashers worked at YMCA and as authorities tracked them down, they started pointing their fingers at Curry.
Carol Gregory, a spokeswoman for the YMCA, said the nonprofit discovered the fraud and alerted the District’s U.S. Attorneys Office. The organization conducted its own investigation and turned the details over to authorities, she said.
“We had safeguards in place to protect our funds,” Gregory said. “But as a result of this incident we have expanded those internal controls.”
Two of the alleged check cashers have been charged in the scheme.
