Crime & Safety
Urology Practice Says It's a Victim of Phony Checks Scheme
The practice, which has an office in Lower Macungie, tells police 'numerous' phony payroll checks were cashed at township Walmart.
A Lehigh Valley urology practice says it's the victim of a counterfeit checks scheme, police say.
Urology Specialists of the Lehigh Valley, which has an office in Lower Macungie, contacted state police at Fogelsville last month and said "numerous" fraudulent payroll checks created from a closed account were cashed at the Walmart on Millcreek Road in the township.
A state police fax does not list a dollar amount of the checks.
The suspected check scheme is similar to an operation based in Northampton County whose alleged mastermind was arrested in October in New Jersey. In that case, phony payroll checks also were cashed at several Walmarts.
There is no indication on the fax that the Urology Specialists case is in any way connected to the Northampton County case.
Urology Specialists told state police on Nov. 5 that it learned of the scheme from letters it has been receiving from a payment recovery service, according to the fax.
The service said there were multiple payroll checks that were returned unpaid.
And Urology Specialists told police the checks were fraudulent -- created from a closed account, the fax explains.
Urology Specialists' website says the practice has 13 physicians and eight office locations serving patients in Lehigh, Berks, Northampton, Carbon, Bucks and Monroe counties in Pennsylvania and Warren County in New Jersey.
The main office is on the campus of Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest, the website says. The Lower Macungie office is at 5018 Medical Center Circle, which is off the Route 222 bypass and west of Brookside Road.
In the other check fraud case, alleged mastermind Alexander Cedano, 44, of Easton was arrested Oct. 1 in Bayonne, N.J., according to a web posting by The Jersey Journal.
According to a previous Patch story, Cedano is facing charges involving alleged phony check schemes that targeted two businesses: Mesko Spotting Service Inc. of Upper Macungie Township, involving $11,000 in checks, and Magnetic Windings of Palmer Township, involving about $13,000 in checks.
In the Upper Macungie and Palmer cases, checks were cashed at Walmarts in Lower Nazareth and Bethlehem townships, according to the charges.
