Farmington Police Make Arrest in Counterfeit Check Ring

Farmington Police arrested a man Thursday in connection with a counterfeit check ring investigation that has been ongoing for years.  

The ring involves forged checks being cashed at Farmington Bank branches all over the area. The checks trace back to legitimate accounts, police said. In this case, $7,800 was stolen from the victim’s bank account, police said.  

Daniel Satterwhite, 38, of Hartford, who was charged Thursday, is just one of the people arrested for trying to cash the fake checks, according to Farmington Police Lt. Marshall Porter.  

He was charged with second-degree forgery, two counts of third-degree identity theft and fifth-degree larceny.  

Over the course of the investigation, which began in 2010, three women have been arrested and more arrests are expected, Porter said.  

Satterwhite is accused of attempting to cash a fake check at the Westfarms mall branch using a Connecticut identification card.  

“When the bank investigated and turned over the case to detectives, they had already identified other suspects who had passed counterfeit checks,” Porter said.   Satterwhite later tried to cash another check at a Glastonbury branch, using his driver’s license, Porter said. Both checks were written in his name.  

None of the victim’s checks were missing, Porter said, meaning that someone was able to reproduce the checks. Police are still looking to arrest that person.

“One of the people we arrested earlier said they were asked to cash checks by an unknown suspect in Hartford in exchange for money,” Porter said.  

“We never figured out where they were coming from or how they were making the checks,” Porter said.  

Satterwhite was held on $10,000 surety bond for a court appearance Thursday.