A man from Union County was arrested for operating a check cashing service without a license.

The Union County man pleaded guilty to his charges and will spend five years in prison. (Photo: Experian)

Check Cashing Service Without A License

A man from Union County has been sentenced to five years in prison for operating an illegal check cashing service. Fernando Q. Martins admitted to running a check cashing service in Newark without a license from 2015 to 2019, as well as multiple shell companies.

During the operations of the check cashing service, he cashed checks for customers, mainly from the construction and building industries, for a 3% fee. Martins and his associates would travel to a licensed check cashier to successfully do the check cashing service, after which the cash was given to customers minus the fee.

The total amount of checks cashed in the illegal check cashing service was between $250 million and $550 million. Martins, the owner of the illegal check cashing service, had over $700,000 in cash when he was arrested in July 2019.

According to a published article by NJ.com, by using Martins’ check cashing service, customers were able to avoid reporting the money and paying taxes. Martins and his businesses aside from the illegal check cashing service never registered with the U.S. Department of Treasury or reported any transactions to the government.

In addition to prison time due to his illegal check cashing service, Martins has been fined $50,000 and ordered to pay $765,185 in forfeiture.

“Community Check Cashing”

In a published article by Patch,  Fernando Q. Martins has  admitted to running an unlicensed money-transmitting business called Community Check Cashing.  He pleaded guilty to operating without the necessary licenses and permissions.  Martins also acknowledged that his illegal activities resulted in a financial loss  ranging from $250 million to $550 million.

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