2 Arrested in Check-Cashing Scam Aimed at Students

Burbank police arrested two men suspected of running a phony check-cashing scam that cost community college students at least $40,000.

Pervis Patterson, 24, of Inglewood and Shonerick Brame, 25, of Van Nuys were arrested this week on charges of forgery and conspiracy to pass counterfeit checks, said Det. Matthew Ferguson.

Calling the crime “a variation on a money-for-nothing scam,” Ferguson said the students were told they would be put on the payroll of an upstart rap record label “for tax purposes.”

Police said the suspects gave the students $6,000 checks allegedly drawn on corporate bank accounts from companies in Los Angeles and Orange counties. The students were then asked, police said, to cash the checks at their personal banks in exchange for $1,000.

But when the students gave the proceeds from the checks to the suspects, the two men disappeared, police said, leaving the students on their own to make thousands of dollars in payments to their banks.

At least four students from Valley College and Glendale Community College in the San Fernando Valley were involved, Ferguson said. More victims could emerge, he said.

Brame pleaded not guilty to the charges on Thursday and is being held at Twin Towers jail in lieu of $91,000 bail. Patterson, who was released on $20,000 bond, is to be arraigned on Nov. 26.