After Losing Job and Crypto, Man Falsely Claimed $1.3M From 107 Class Actions

An upstate New York man has been accused of receiving more than 27,000 payments totaling more than $1.3 million from approximately 107 different class action lawsuit settlements between January 2022 and December 2025.

According to court documents, the man admitted that he used fictitious names to make claims in several hundred class action lawsuits and that he “came up with the idea all by himself.” He told investigators he started doing this after being unemployed due to Covid-19 and following the loss of cryptocurrency.

U.S. Attorney Michael DiGiacomo announced last week that Phillip Digennaro, of Greece, New York was arrested and criminally charged with conspiracy, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and money laundering, which carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

Among the class actions Digennaro is charged with tapping are ones involving Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep, Vimeo, Porsche and EpiPen.

To accomplish the claims fraud, he allegedly used more than 480 bank accounts at eight different financial institutions, including Synchrony Bank, Alliant Bank, Chase Bank, Key Bank, M&T Bank, PNC Bank, Discover Bank, and Barclays Bank, as well as Pay Pal.

The government’s criminal complaint filed in federal court in Rochester is based on an FBI agent’s affidavit. The fact that Digennaro has been charged with a crime is merely an accusation and he is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.

The FBI affidavit says that Digennaro voluntarily spoke with law enforcement agents who showed up at his home and that he acknowledged a number of the facts set forth in the affidavit and explained how he had obtained fake identifications.

The agents said he told them that he used a fake name generator and sometimes grabbed fake identifications from the dark web. He would pass these along to a third party in Columbia who would file the fake claims using a proxy. He told agents he paid this person $600 a month.

In one example cited by officials, Digennaro filed false claims in a class action against Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep in the Northern District of California that alleged that certain Dodge Rams and Jeep Grand Cherokees did not comply with federal and state emissions regulations and that Fiat Chrysler made misrepresentations to consumers regarding the vehicles.

The automakers settled the class action by making cash payments ranging from $990 to $3,075.to class members. Between January 2022, and May 2023, Digennaro received nine payments totaling $27,060 from the lawsuit settlement fund, according to court documents.

In the automakers’ case, investigators contend that Digennaro submitted at least five fraudulent California driver’s licenses and vehicle registrations (which they say he told them he obtained on the dark web) using email addresses with fake names.

Another example cited by prosecutors involved Vimeo, which operates the video streaming platform Magistro. Vimeo was accused by some Illinois residents of unlawfully collecting biometric information from their photos and videos without their consent in violation of the Illinois Biometric Information Act. Vimeo settled by contributing $2.25 million to a settlement fund in 2023.

Law enforcement claims that Digennaro received 437 claim payments from the Vimeo fund worth more than $43,000, despite not living in Illinois. They say he deposited the payments in 227 different bank accounts at five different banks.

The affidavit includes copies of checks totaling $761 from a Porsche quality gasoline settlement and $1,718 from an EpiPen antitrust settlement fund.

Digennaro told the FBI that he identified ongoing class action lawsuits by viewing websites such as TopClassActions.com. After receiving notice that a claim had been approved, he would submit an address change to the claims administrator so the check would be forwarded to his real physical address, according to the affidavit.

On May 21, 2026, law enforcement executed a federal seizure warrant and seized approximately $1.2 million from accounts controlled by Digennaro. That same day, investigators executed a search warrant at his residence, seizing multiple checks that were issued from class action settlement funds.

During the search warrant, law enforcement also seized electronic devices containing records of class action lawsuit filings, photoshopped documents with fake names, and a folder labeled “ready for claims” with subfolders for various class action lawsuits.