ST. GEORGE — A local man was arrested facing felony forgery and theft charges for allegedly using the bank information from a property management account to make nearly $3,000 in credit card payments, police say.
On Thursday morning, Carlos Ezequiel Cruz turned himself in at the St. George Police Department where he was arrested following an interview with detectives. He was booked into jail facing four third-degree felony charges, including three counts of possession of a forgery device and one count of theft.
The arrest stems from a months-long investigation that started May 7 when officers responded to a report alleging the fraudulent use of a bank account.
Investigators to a housing complex on Tabernacle and spoke to a manager who reported that an unknown individual had made three payments using their bank account.
One payment was made to Apple for more than $316, while two payments totaling more than $2,500 was paid to Fingerhut.
Detectives also learned that all three payments contained information in the description line that led them to Cruz.
Investigators learned Cruz was a previous tenant of the housing complex until his recent eviction. is security deposit was returned in the form of a check that was drafted from the property management company’s account.
Investigators issued a number of subpoenas to the recipients of the alleged fraudulent checks. This revealed the payee’s identifying information that matched the information provided by the property management company that was then traced back to Cruz.
While speaking with detectives at the St. George Police Department on Thursday, the suspect reportedly admitted to using the account information from the security deposit check to pay the Apple account and said he then used the same account number to make a payment on his Fingerhut credit card account.
The victims were made whole, the report states, which left the bank with a loss of nearly $2,830.
On Friday, the case was filed by the Washington County Attorney’s Office and the suspect was formally charged. Bail was set at $10,000 and the suspect was released early Friday morning after posting a bond. An initial appearance has yet to be scheduled.
This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.
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