A man from New York was sentenced for a federal theft crime in the Mountain State.
According to a news release, Kwanique Martin, 33, of Brooklyn, New York, was sentenced to three years of federal probation on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, and ordered to pay $14,256 in restitution for theft of public funds, property, or records.
According to court filings, on March 1, 2025, Martin flew from New York to a company in the Summersville region of Nicholas County and cashed a $1,400 United States Treasury check made out to another individual.
According to the release, Martin admitted in his guilty plea that the check was not his, that he lacked the right to cash it, and that when he cashed it, he presented a false U.S. passport card with his photograph that matched the name on the check.
According to the press release, Martin admitted to possessing other stolen US Treasury checks as well as US passports modified with his photograph that matched the names on the stolen checks. On March 1, 2025, he reported that nine of the stolen checks were fraudulently cashed at businesses in Morgantown, Grafton, Weston, Buckhannon, Sutton, Clarksburg, and Kingwood, West Virginia, and Oakland, Maryland.
According to the press release, Martin received around $14,002.72 total from the ten cheques. He allegedly admitted to having an additional $18,286.97 in stolen US Treasury checks that he meant to fraudulently cash, but he apparently left them in a bag, along with the money, in a motel in the Summersville area on March 2, 2025, after spending the nite.
According to the press statement, the motel alerted law authorities after discovering the bag, and Martin was detained when he returned to the motel to retrieve the bag.
United States Attorney Moore Capito made the announcement, thanking the Summersville Police Department, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security-Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the U.S. Department of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), and the Nicholas County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office for their assistance and contributions to the investigation.
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