Rochester, N.Y. — A Greece man faces federal charges for conspiracy, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and money laundering, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of New York announced in a release Tuesday.
Phillip Digennaro, 38, filed false claims in class-action lawsuits, seeking settlement payments he was not entitled to, according to prosecutors.
He used over 480 bank accounts at eight different financial institutions to perpetuate this scheme, including Synchrony Bank, Alliant Bank, Chase Bank, Key Bank, M&T Bank, PNC Bank, Discover Bank, and Barclays Bank, as well as Pay Pal. Between January 2022 and December 2025, Digennaro is accused of receiving approximately 27,052 payments totaling approximately $1,303,060.59 from approximately 107 different class action lawsuit settlements. Digennaro continued to transfer funds derived from the class action lawsuits between various accounts in his control until April 2026.
Prosecutors said a federal seizure warrant was executed May 21, recovering $1,224,497.27 from accounts controlled by Digennaro. Investigators also searched his home, seizing multiple checks issued from settlement funds that were payable to other individuals.
During the search warrant, law enforcement also seized numerous electronic devices, which contained voluminous 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....
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