New Jersey Man Jailed re $200 Million Credit Card Scam
https://www.justice.gov/usao-nj/pr/middlesex-county-new-jersey-man-gets-over-three-years-jail-particpating-international-200
Department of Justice
U.S. Attorneys Office
District of New Jersey
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, January 25, 2017
Middlesex County, New Jersey, Man Gets Over Three Years In Jail For Particpating In International $200 Million Credit Card Scam
TRENTON, N.J. An Iselin, New Jersey, man was sentenced today to 46 months in prison for his role in one of the largest credit card fraud schemes ever charged by the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced. Babar Qureshi, 63, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Anne E. Thompson to Count One of an indictment charging him with conspiracy to commit bank fraud. Judge Thompson imposed the sentence today in Trenton federal court.
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Qureshi was originally charged in February 2013 as part of a conspiracy to fabricate more than 7,000 false identities to obtain tens of thousands of credit cards. The scheme involved a three-step process in which the defendants would make up a false identity by creating fraudulent identification documents and a fraudulent credit profile with the major credit bureaus; pump up the credit of the false identity by providing false information about that identitys creditworthiness to those credit bureaus; and finally, run up large loans.
The scope of the criminal fraud enterprise required Qureshi and other conspirators to construct an elaborate network of false identities. Across the country, the conspirators maintained more than 1,800 drop addresses, including houses, apartments and post office boxes, which they used as the mailing addresses of the false identities.
Qureshis role in the conspiracy was to take the phony cards and charge large amounts at complicit merchants, who would then pay him a portion of the charge. He used phony bank accounts to conceal his involvement and receive proceeds from the fraud, which he used for personal expenses, including his mortgage.
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