Tag: identity theft

US Postal workers arrested in $1.3 million fraud and identity theft scheme, authorities say

Three US Postal employees are among four people arrested in connection with a $1.3 million fraud and identity theft scheme allegedly carried out in New York and New Jersey since 2018, according to the Department of Justice.

A further five people facing changes in connection with the case remain at large, it said.

The individuals are accused of stealing credit cards from the mail and using them to buy merchandise at a variety of stores, including high-end retailers in New York and New Jersey, authorities said.

They are then said to have sold some of the merchandise on the website LuxurySnob.com, according to a statement from the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

US postal workers Nathanael Foucault, Johnathan Persaud, Fabiola Mompoint, and civilian Devon Richards were arrested on Thursday, according to the statement.

Officials said five other people face charges, including Conspiracy to Commit Access Device Fraud, Access Device Fraud, and Aggravated Identity Theft charges, and each face lengthy prison sentences if found guilty.

“The defendants took advantage of the public trust we place in US Postal Service employees for their own financial gain,” US Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement. “Thanks to the diligence of USPIS (the Postal Inspection Service), the NYPD, and USPS-OIG (the Office of the Inspector General), the defendants will now be held accountable for their brazen criminal conduct.”

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US defense contractor and his wife who lived for decades using the stolen IDs of dead Texas babies are charged with identity theft but deny claims they are spies after photos of them in KGB uniforms are found

Walter Glenn Primrose and Gwynn Darle Morrison, both in their 60s, allegedly lived for decades under the names Bobby Edward Fort and Julie Lyn Montague – the stolen names of infants who died decades ago – according to federal court records unsealed in Honolulu.

The couple face charges of aggravated identity theft, conspiracy to commit an offense against the US and false statement in an application for a passport after they were arrested Friday in Kapolei on the island of Oahu.

Prosecutors are seeking to have the couple held without bail, which could indicate the case is about more than fraudulently obtaining drivers’ licenses, passports and Defense Department credentials.

Those documents helped Primrose get secret security clearance with the US Coast Guard and as a defense contractor and old photos show the couple wearing uniforms of the KGB, the former Russian spy agency, Assistant US Attorney Thomas Muehleck said in court papers.

Faded Polaroids of each in uniform were included in the motion to have them held.

A ‘close associate’ said Morrison lived in Romania while it was a Soviet bloc country, Muehleck said.

Morrison’s attorney said her client never lived in Romania and that she and Primrose tried the same jacket on as a joke and posed for photos in it.

Even if the couple used new identities, attorney Megan Kau told The Associated Press, they have lived law-abiding lives for three decades.

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USPS mail carriers allegedly stole credit cards as part of huge identity theft ring

Four US Postal Service mail carriers — including three from New York City — are accused of stealing credit cards from the mail as part of a $750,000 identity theft ring, prosecutors said.

The postal workers and nine other suspects were indicted in Manhattan Supreme Court on conspiracy, grand larceny and a litany of other charges over the scheme that took place between January 2017 and August 2019, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.

The federal employees, who were recruited by 37-year-old ringleader Michael Richards, of Manhattan, allegedly swiped over 1,000 credit cards that were then used by another defendant to buy high-end goods at luxury retailers, prosecutors said.

“Richards paid the mail carriers different amounts depending on how well the cards they stole performed,” the DA’s office said in a press release.

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