U.S. District Judge Roger W. Titus sentenced David Rosser-El, 60, formerly of Temple Hills, the self-proclaimed Sultan of the United States Moorish-American Nation, to five years in prison followed by three years of supervised release for conspiracy to defraud banks and to pass counterfeit postal money orders.
According to the plea agreement, Rosser-El conspired with co-defendant Edna Gorham Bey, 58, formerly of Temple Hills, from July 2001 to September 2002 to copy legitimate postal money orders they purchased from U.S. post offices by scanning them into a computer, altering the face value and printing the forged money orders. Rosser-El negotiated the original, legitimate money orders at a bank or post office, or returned them to the post office for a cash refund. He negotiated the forged, counterfeited and altered postal money orders at banks, post offices and check cashing businesses. To pass off the fraudulent money orders, Rosser-El maintained aliases by using the identities of real and fictitious persons, and created means of identification such as driver’s licenses in the names of aliases. Rosser-El’s participation in the conspiracy caused banks and the U.S. Postal Service losses of more than $200,000.
On Aug. 30, a federal jury convicted Gorham-Bey, who identifies herself as the Sultana of the United States Moorish-American Nation, in connection with the above scheme. Gorham-Bey faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison for bank fraud; 15 years in prison for possession of false identification documents and possession of implements for making false identification documents; and 5 years in prison for conspiracy and passing counterfeit money orders. Judge Titus scheduled sentencing for Nov. 16, and ordered that Gorham-Bey be taken into custody pending her sentencing.
