A Florida man who travelled across the country to Wyoming with a counterfeit United States Treasury cheque worth $560,625 has been sentenced to 70 months in federal prison. Daniel Keith McDougal, 37, of Orlando, Florida, was sentenced in Cheyenne by U.S. District Judge Alan B. Johnson, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Wyoming announced on October 30, 2026. On top of the prison term, McDougal will serve five years of supervised release after he gets out, and he was ordered to pay $27,000 in restitution.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, District of Wyoming, Oct 30, 2026
The sentence closes a case that began in January 2023, when, according to the evidence presented at trial, McDougal and a co-conspirator, Kennard Bouk, travelled from Florida to Wyoming with, in the Justice Department's words, the sole purpose of cashing the counterfeit $560,625 Treasury cheque at a bank in Cheyenne. A federal jury convicted McDougal in August 2026 after a five-day trial. Wyoming News, reporting the same sentencing independently in Cheyenne, confirmed the 70-month term, the five years of supervised release and the $27,000 restitution order.
Source: Wyoming News (Cheyenne), Oct 30, 2026
What the jury convicted him of
The jury found McDougal guilty of four offences: passing a counterfeit U.S. Treasury check, bank fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, and conspiracy to defraud the United States. Prosecutors described him as the leader of a multi-state fraud scheme that targeted a Wyoming financial institution. The case is listed by the Justice Department as Case No. 26-CR-00168.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, District of Wyoming, Oct 30, 2026
His partner in the trip has already been through the same courtroom. Kennard Bouk previously pleaded guilty to bank fraud for his role in the scheme and was sentenced in May 2024 to 41 months in prison, also with $27,000 in restitution. The two sentences, read together, show how federal courts divide responsibility in a two-man scheme: the man prosecutors called the leader, who fought the case at trial, received 70 months; the man who pleaded guilty received 41.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, District of Wyoming, Oct 30, 2026
What officials said
"No matter how calculated the scheme, it cannot withstand the joint efforts of our office, TIGTA, and the Secret Service," said U.S. Attorney Darin Smith. "Out-of-state fraudsters will be held fully accountable under federal law in Wyoming." TIGTA — the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, the watchdog that investigates crimes against the Treasury and the tax system — investigated the case together with the United States Secret Service. TIGTA Special Agent-in-Charge Krystofor Proev said the agency "takes all investigations into passing counterfeit U.S. Treasury checks seriously" and thanked the U.S. Attorney's Office for prosecuting the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Margaret Vierbuchen prosecuted it.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, District of Wyoming, Oct 30, 2026
U.S. Treasury cheques are how the federal government pays money out — tax refunds, benefits and other federal payments. A counterfeit Treasury cheque is therefore not just a fake piece of paper aimed at one bank: it is an attempt to draw real money out of the federal payment system itself, which is why two federal agencies, TIGTA and the Secret Service, investigated this case and why the charges included conspiracy to defraud the United States.
The wider fraud crackdown this case sits in
The Justice Department said the case was part of its National Fraud Enforcement Division, a specialised, data-driven unit that investigates and prosecutes fraud targeting American citizens and taxpayer-funded programs. The division's work supports Executive Order 14395, issued by President Donald J. Trump on March 16, 2026, which established the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud and ordered stricter eligibility verification to protect federal and state benefit networks. A single counterfeit cheque in Cheyenne is, in that framing, one file in a national campaign — but for the Cheyenne bank that was asked to cash it, and for the tellers who would have handled it, the scheme was entirely local.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, District of Wyoming, Oct 30, 2026
What this means for readers who receive federal cheques
Many of this site's readers in the United States — truckers waiting on tax refunds, families receiving federal benefits — are paid by the same Treasury cheque system this scheme impersonated. The practical lesson of the McDougal case runs in both directions. If a stranger asks you to cash, deposit or move a government cheque for them, especially one printed for a very large amount and especially if they have travelled or want you to travel to do it, that request is the classic shape of cheque fraud, and the person who presents the cheque is the person the bank and the police will hold responsible — as both McDougal and Bouk now are. Legitimate Treasury cheques can be verified by the bank before they are negotiated; a cheque that has to be cashed quickly, quietly and far from home is a warning sign, not an opportunity.
What happens next
McDougal's case is now in its enforcement phase: a 70-month federal prison term, followed by five years of supervised release, during which a further offence or a breach of his release conditions can send him back to prison, and a $27,000 restitution obligation that survives his release. Bouk's 41-month sentence, imposed in May 2024, is already well advanced. The Justice Department's announcement did not name any further defendants in the scheme, and no additional charges were announced with the sentencing.