FREDERIKSTED — A St. Croix man was arrested after an eight-month-long investigation found that he siphoned more than $11,000 from a woman’s bank account.
Jeremiah Cheatham, 25, was arrested Monday morning and charged with forgery, obtaining money by false pretense, grand larceny and access to a computer for fraudulent purposes, the Virgin Islands Police Department said.
The investigation revealed that on three separate occasions, Cheatham wrote three checks against the victim’s First Bank checking account totaling $3,540.00 and made several PayPal transactions, totaling $7,564.91, without her permission, VIPD Communications Director Glen Dratte said.
This caused the victim to suffer a total loss of $11,104.91, according to Dratte.
Cheatham surrendered himself to officers at the Wilbur H. Francis Command Police Station at 8:00 a.m. Monday, according to the VIPD.
Detectives of the VIPD’s Economic Crimes Unit executed an arrest warrant and placed Cheatham under arrest at the Wilbur H. Francis Command Police Station at 8:27 a.m. Monday.
The suspect was then processed and booked.
Bail for Cheatham was set at $20,000.00. Unable to post bail, he was remanded to the Bureau of Corrections pending an advice-of-rights hearing scheduled for tomorrow.
Cheatham’s arrest was the culmination of an investigation by detectives with the Economic Crime Unit that started on January 18, 2022.