Man sentenced to 60 months for running fake holiday charity, stealing nearly $200K

WASHINGTON - A Maryland man was sentenced to 60 months in prison for creating fake charities, soliciting donations and then stealing the identities of donors he tricked into giving funds.

James Trankle, 55, previously of Churchton, Maryland, was found guilty in May for conspiracy to commit mail and bank fraud, and five additional counts of bank fraud.

Trankle and his co-defendent, Stephen Sibert, created fake charities like "Disabled and Paralyzed Veterans Fund," the "National Breast Cancer Awareness Fund," and the "Children’s Leukemia of America Fund," according to court documents. The duo took over 1,600 personal checks from victims who thought they were making charitable gifts – but the checks were just deposited into their bank account. They obtained more than $45,000 from victims who thought they were making legitimate donations.

By using the bank account and routing information from the victims' checks, Trankle and Sibert printed additional unauthorized counterfeit checks, depositing them into their bank accounts to spend on personal expenses. They deposited more than 700 counterfeit checks, totaling more than $150,000.

The fake charities utilized a P.O. box in Washington, D.C. as the official mailing address – but never performed any charitable work or donated funds to other charities that did so.

As part of the sentencing, Trankls has also been ordered to pay $204,561 in restitution, to forfeit $135,327 and to serve five years of supervised release.