Stone Mountain rapper sentenced to 6 years in $6.5 million check fraud scheme

Sentencing

A Stone Mountain man who performed as a rapper under the name Juney Knotzz has been sentenced to six years in federal prison after pleading guilty to bank fraud and aggravated identity theft, according to the S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia.

Shamarri Tache Brooks, 34, will also serve five years of supervised release following his prison term. Federal prosecutors said Brooks ran a scheme that involved stealing checks from the mail, altering them, and teaching others to do the same.

The Scheme

According to prosecutors, Brooks began his fraud scheme in January 2022 by "negotiating checks stolen from the mail." He would recruit people through social media to deposit the stolen checks into their existing bank accounts, then alter the checks so they appeared to have been intended for those account holders.

Brooks would then go to various ATMs around the Atlanta metro area wearing a "balaclava-style mask" with a "No Free Sauce" logo to deposit the checks, prosecutors said.

Over the course of nearly three years, Brooks and an associate stole and deposited checks with a total face value of $6,574,288, according to the S. Attorney's Office. During a search of Brooks' home, law enforcement recovered many of the stolen checks amounting to the $6.5 million figure.

At the same time, Brooks was promoting and selling tutorials for committing various forms of financial fraud, including the check scheme he was running. He called the collection of tutorials the "Sauce Book" or "SB," matching his initials.

Prosecutors' Remarks

S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg said in a statement that Brooks "brazenly marketed and sold fraud tutorials and trafficked thousands of stolen checks worth millions of dollars." Hertzberg also noted that Brooks's efforts to negotiate the checks failed, sparing his victims from any known loss.

"Although Brooks sought to teach his followers how to commit fraud, the real lesson here is that crime does not pay," Hertzberg said. "We will catch you, and you will go to prison—even if your scheme is unsuccessful."

Prior Convictions and Investigation

Brooks has previous convictions for drug trafficking, weapon possession, obstruction of law enforcement, and battery, according to the S. Attorney's Office.

The FBI worked with the S. Postal Service and the Dunwoody Police Department to make an arrest in the case, according to prosecutors.