Andre Pitts

Introduction

Andre Pitts, 21, a resident of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was sentenced in federal court to two years of probation and ordered to pay $30,471.80 in restitution on his convictions for uttering counterfeit obligations or securities and theft of government property. Senior United States District Judge David Stewart Cercone imposed the sentence, announced by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania on August 18, 2026. The case grew out of a single altered U.S. Treasury check worth $62,211 that Pitts deposited and quickly began converting to cash.

Background Information

According to information presented to the Court, the check at the center of the case was issued in February 2023 to another individual in connection with that person’s income tax return, its memo line identifying both the rightful payee and the 2021 tax year. The deposited version carried alterations: the payee information and memo line had been changed to identify Pitts, his residence, and a tax year of 2022. Altering a Treasury check and passing it as one’s own is the conduct federal law charges as uttering counterfeit obligations, paired here with theft of government property. Treasury checks carry those protections precisely because they move government money, and the two statutes paired in this case are the pair Congress wrote for exactly this manipulation — one reaching the false instrument, one reaching the government funds taken through it.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Convicted and sentenced. Pitts was convicted of uttering counterfeit obligations or securities and theft of government property, and sentenced to two years of probation with $30,471.80 in restitution.

On June 12, 2023, Pitts deposited the altered $62,211 Treasury check, and the speed of what followed became part of the record: he quickly made several transactions, including withdrawing $500 in cash and having a $25,000 cashier’s check issued to himself. The move from deposit to cashier’s check is the classic conversion pattern — turning a paper instrument whose alterations might later be caught into an instrument that clears like his own money. The restitution order at $30,471.80 represents the loss the government tied to him, a fraction of the check’s face value but a debt that follows him past the probation term.

The case landed in federal court because Treasury checks are federal instruments, and the sentence — probation rather than prison for a 21-year-old — reflects a first federal conviction prosecuted to conviction nonetheless. Two felony convictions now stand on his record from the June 2023 deposit.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The documented reaction is institutional. Assistant United States Attorney Brendan J. McKenna prosecuted the case, and United States Attorney Troy Rivetti commended the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) Office of Investigations for the investigation leading to the successful prosecution. The release contains no statement from Pitts and no victim commentary beyond the court record itself. The consequences are the two convictions, the two-year probation term, and the restitution obligation to pay back $30,471.80.

Current Status

Pitts is serving the two-year probation term imposed by Judge Cercone and owes the $30,471.80 in restitution ordered alongside it. His convictions for uttering counterfeit obligations and theft of government property resolved the June 2023 altered-check case. The release does not state whether he pleaded guilty or was convicted at trial, whether restitution is being paid on a schedule, or whether any co-participants in the check’s alteration were charged separately. He was 21 at sentencing, and the probation term will end around his 23rd birthday.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Two federal convictions — one for uttering counterfeit obligations, one for theft of government property — attach to Pitts at 21, years in which most records of consequence are still blank. The restitution debt keeps the case financially alive for as long as it takes to pay, and probation means his conduct stays subject to court supervision into 2028. The release records nothing about his occupation, education, or family, but the conviction pair follows every background check that touches the federal system.

Sources

• U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of Pennsylvania, “Pittsburgh Man Sentenced for Deposit of Stolen and Altered U.S. Treasury Check”, August 18, 2026 — source