Published
July 7, 2026
Updated
July 10, 2026
If you have ever filed a legitimate settlement claim, this case matters to you — fraudulent claims come out of the same pot of money that pays real class members.
Allegations Only · Presumed Innocent
This article describes a federal criminal complaint. The statements below are unproven allegations by prosecutors. Phillip Digennaro has not been convicted of anything, and he is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court. This page is informational and is not legal advice.
What Is This Case About?
A 38-year-old man from Greece, a suburb of Rochester in Western New York, was arrested and charged in federal court after prosecutors say he built a years-long operation around a single idea: filing fake class action claims in settlements and collecting money meant for real class members. According to the criminal complaint, Philip Digennaro allegedly received about $1.3 million across more than 27,000 separate payments from roughly 107 different class action lawsuit settlements between January 2022 and December 2025. The criminal complaint has now been unsealed, and OpenClassActions.com has obtained and reviewed it; the July 10, 2026 update below details what it reveals.The case is one of the largest individual settlement-claim fraud prosecutions to be made public. It is a criminal matter, not a class action — there is nothing for consumers to claim here. But it is a useful window into how fraudulent claims work, and why they matter to honest claimants: when a settlement pays class members on a pro rata basis, every fake claim can shrink the check that reaches an actual consumer.
Status
Charged — Criminal Complaint
Presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty · released on conditions
Alleged Amount
~$1.3 Million
Across ~27,000 payments from ~107 class action settlements (Jan 2022 – Dec 2025)
Alleged Method
480+ Bank Accounts
Spread across eight financial institutions · over $1 million seized in May 2026
Charges
Wire Fraud + More
Conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, transfer of false IDs, aggravated identity theft, two money laundering charges · wire fraud carries up to 20 years
Update July 10, 2026: Inside the Unsealed Criminal Complaint
OpenClassActions.com has reviewed the federal criminal complaint, which was sworn on June 4, 2026 by FBI Special Agent Stephen J. Csapo of the Bureau's Buffalo Field Office and unsealed in connection with the July 7 arrest announcement. The case is docketed as United States v. Philip Digennaro, Case No. 6:26-mj-00550-MJP, in the Western District of New York in Rochester. (The court caption spells his first name Philip; the DOJ announcement used Phillip.) The complaint charges conduct spanning January 1, 2021 through May 21, 2026, and includes a charge that was not widely reported: transfer of more than five false identification documents, alongside conspiracy, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and two forms of money laundering.You can read the full complaint and FBI affidavit below:
The Vimeo Example: 437 Payments From One Settlement
The most striking example in the complaint involves the Vimeo/Magisto biometric privacy settlement (Acaley v. Vimeo, Cook County, Illinois), a $2.25 million fund created for Illinois residents whose faces were detected by the Magisto app. According to the affidavit, Digennaro has only ever lived in New York and California and was never a class member. Investigators nonetheless traced approximately 437 claim payments totaling approximately $43,086.02 from that single settlement to accounts he controlled, including 287 payments of exactly $147.46 received on one day in October 2023 and another 150 payments of exactly $5.10 in September 2024.Those 437 payouts were deposited into 227 unique bank accounts at five different banks, and according to the affidavit, every one of those accounts was in Digennaro's own name. The complaint also notes that under the court's order in that settlement, leftover funds were designated for donation to the ACLU of Illinois, meaning fraudulent claims in that case allegedly diverted money that would otherwise have gone to charity.
How Investigators Connected the Claims to Him
The affidavit lays out the digital trail in the EcoDiesel settlement. A claim filed in January 2021 under the initials "K.T." for a 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee EcoDiesel used a Gmail address whose recovery email, according to records obtained from Google and Apple, was Digennaro's own personal email account. The vehicle identified in the claim was actually registered in Arizona. One minute after the claims administrator emailed the approval, "K.T." replied asking that the mailing address be changed to Digennaro's home address, and the resulting $3,075 check was mailed there. Seven of the nine EcoDiesel checks were deposited into a Chase account held in Digennaro's name using remote online deposit, and the remaining two into PNC accounts in his name using mobile deposit.Investigators also cite Digennaro's own social media activity, including a November 2024 post in a Facebook group focused on settlement payouts, where he asked when and how payments from a truck manufacturer settlement would be issued.
The Driveway Confession
According to the affidavit, Digennaro initially declined to speak with agents during the May 21 search of his home. A few hours in, he asked to talk with them in the driveway, away from his family, after agents reminded him the conversation was voluntary. He then allegedly admitted using fictitious names to file claims in several hundred class action lawsuits, said the idea was entirely his own, and explained that he started around 2021 after losing his job during the COVID-19 pandemic and losing cryptocurrency.He allegedly described the full workflow: identifying open settlements on websites that track class action payouts, generating fake claimant names with a name generator, purchasing matching fake IDs on the dark web, and paying a third party in Colombia $600 per month to file the claims through a proxy. For addresses, he allegedly explained that he would attach a fake name to any valid address and then use U.S. Postal Service mail forwarding to route that name's mail to his own home. He also allegedly admitted that one set of fake New York title and registration documents used his grandfather's real name, and that over the past year his claim submissions were increasingly denied.
Where the Money Went
The complaint states that Digennaro consolidated approximately $471,758.89 into a Lending Club account and approximately $731,735.83 into a Barclays account, and the May 21 seizure of $1,224,497.27 came from those two accounts. During the home search, agents also found settlement checks payable to people other than Digennaro, including three checks from the Porsche Gasoline Qualified Settlement Fund made out to three separate individuals and totaling $761.92. Law enforcement is still determining whether those names belong to real people.What Happens Next
Digennaro was released on conditions after his initial appearance before Magistrate Judge Mark W. Pedersen. Because he was charged by complaint rather than indictment, the next step is either a preliminary hearing or a grand jury indictment, and the seized funds may become the subject of forfeiture proceedings. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Meghan K. McGuire and Melanie Bailey following an investigation by the FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. All charges are allegations, and Digennaro is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.How Prosecutors Say the Alleged Scheme Worked
According to investigators, Digennaro allegedly used more than 480 bank accounts spread across eight financial institutions to receive settlement payouts. Notably, the complaint alleges those accounts were opened in Digennaro's own name: the theory is not that the accounts hid who owned them, but that spreading deposits across hundreds of accounts concealed the fact that many payments from the same settlement were flowing to the same individual. That concealment allegation is the foundation of one of the money laundering charges.When investigators executed a seizure on May 21, they say they recovered over $1 million from accounts Digennaro controlled. Prosecutors say they also found multiple checks issued by settlement funds, devices containing records of class action claim filings, photoshopped documents bearing fake names, and a folder labeled "ready for claims."
The EcoDiesel Settlement Example
Prosecutors highlighted one settlement in particular. In the Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep EcoDiesel marketing and products-liability litigation — which paid cash to owners and lessees of certain 2014 to 2016 Ram 1500 and Jeep Grand Cherokee diesel vehicles — Digennaro allegedly submitted at least five fake driver's licenses and collected a total of $27,060 from the settlement fund.That EcoDiesel settlement required proof of vehicle ownership or lease, which is exactly the kind of documentation requirement that fabricated identity documents are designed to defeat. OCA covers the related Dodge Ram EcoDiesel EGR cooler class action as well.
The Charges
Digennaro is charged by federal criminal complaint with conspiracy, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, transfer of more than five false identification documents, and two forms of money laundering: concealment money laundering and engaging in monetary transactions over $10,000 in criminally derived funds. The wire fraud count carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. He made an initial appearance before United States Magistrate Judge Mark W. Pedersen in Rochester and was released on conditions.A criminal complaint contains allegations only. Digennaro is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court.
What This Means for Legitimate Claimants
Cases like this are part of the reason settlement administrators have tightened claim verification over the past few years. Class members are increasingly asked for proof of purchase, account records, or identity verification even in settlements that historically paid on attestation alone — a shift we track in our explainer on no-proof versus proof-required settlements. Large-scale fraud also delays distributions, because administrators audit suspicious claim batches before releasing funds.The practical takeaway for consumers is simple: file honest claims, only for products you actually bought or services you actually used, and keep whatever documentation you have. Legitimate claimants have nothing to fear from fraud audits, and honest participation is what keeps low-friction claims processes available for everyone.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much money is involved?
Prosecutors allege approximately $1.3 million in total payments, with over $1 million seized from accounts Digennaro controlled in May 2026.
How many settlements were affected?
Investigators identified roughly 107 different class action lawsuit settlements that made payments tied to the alleged scheme.
Will affected settlements claw the money back?
Seized funds may be subject to forfeiture and restitution proceedings as the case moves forward. How any recovered money is returned to individual settlement funds will depend on the outcome of the prosecution.
Does this change anything for people filing claims now?
Not directly, though claim-verification requirements across the industry have generally become stricter as administrators respond to fraud.
How was the scheme discovered?
The complaint does not identify what first triggered the investigation, but it shows how agents built the case: analyzing bank records across eight institutions, obtaining claims administrator records that tied a claim to an email account recoverable through Digennaro's personal email, tracing a claimed vehicle to an Arizona registration, and reviewing his activity in social media groups about settlement payouts. Hundreds of payments from a single settlement flowing into accounts held in one person's own name is the pattern the money laundering charge is built around.
What is the case number and where can I find the complaint?
The case is United States v. Philip Digennaro, Case No. 6:26-mj-00550-MJP, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York in Rochester. The 20-page criminal complaint and FBI affidavit are available through the federal PACER system, and OpenClassActions.com has posted a copy on this page in the July 10 update above.
Why did he allegedly do it?
According to the affidavit, Digennaro told agents he devised the scheme on his own around 2021 after becoming unemployed during the COVID-19 pandemic and losing money in cryptocurrency, losses he separately claims in civil lawsuits were the result of theft.
Sources
• DOJ press release (official announcement, totals, banks, seizure, and prosecutors)• Criminal complaint and FBI affidavit, United States v. Philip Digennaro, 6:26-mj-00550-MJP (W.D.N.Y.), reviewed by OpenClassActions.com
• WXXI News investigation (complaint reporting and photos, including the EpiPen settlement checks)
• NY Daily Record (Digennaro's pro se lawsuit history and the pending IRS dispute)
• RochesterFirst legal analysis (attorney commentary on settlement fraud detection and AI-generated fake documents)
• News10NBC (charges and initial appearance)
OpenClassActions.com is a consumer news site and is not a law firm.
Free settlement alerts
Get notified when new class actions open to claims
Join thousands of readers who get the latest class action settlements you may qualify for — delivered straight to your inbox.
For more class actions keep scrolling below.
Status
Charged by criminal complaint (presumed innocent) · released on conditions
Case Title
United States v. Philip Digennaro (spelled Phillip in the DOJ announcement)
Case Number
6:26-mj-00550-MJP
Court
U.S. District Court, Western District of New York (Rochester)
Complaint
Sworn June 4, 2026 by FBI Special Agent Stephen J. Csapo · unsealed July 7, 2026
Charges
Conspiracy, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, transfer of false IDs, aggravated identity theft, money laundering (two forms)
Prosecutors
AUSAs Meghan K. McGuire and Melanie Bailey
Investigation
FBI and U.S. Postal Inspection Service
Max Penalty
Up to 20 years (wire fraud count)
