NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WAVY) – A transient man who lived in hotels across Virginia was sentenced Friday to prison for defrauding a financial institution and possessing counterfeit business checks.
Michael Culpeper, 44, was sentenced to 57 months and records say that he has an extensive criminal history, encompassing numerous prior felony convictions, most of which involve similar conduct.
Court records say that in January 2015, Culpeper rented a hotel room owned and operated by a Roanoke business. At the end of the rental period, the hotel refunded his security deposit with a check drawn on its business account.
Culpeper subsequently used the names, addresses, and bank information from this refund check to create and use counterfeit and fraudulent checks.
Between November 2015 and January 2017, Culpeper “negotiated these counterfeit checks at least 16 times. At the time of his arrest, he had 141 more counterfeit checks.”
A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.