Khawaja Ikram may be jailed for 30 years.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: An Indian American man has been charged with being at the center of one of the largest credit card fraud schemes ever investigated by the US Department of Justice.
Forty-one year-old Khawaja Ikram, of Staten Island, New York, pleaded guilty last week to a federal indictment charging him with one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud. Ikram had two other accomplices assisting him with the fraud – Tarsem Lal (73) of Iselin, New Jersey, and Azhar Ikram (4) of Howard Beach, New York – who also pleaded guilty to the same charge on April 2.
According to the Justice Department, Ikram orchestrated a scheme that created over 7,000 fake identities, through which Ikram and his two cohorts took out “tens of thousands” of loans, several of which were through completely fictitious people, businesses, accounts, and so on.
The men employed a three-step process in which they would create a false persona through doctored paperwork and credit reports, pump up these credit numbers to create validity so that they could acquire huge loans, and then actually secure the loans.
These loans, in total, exceed an extraordinary sum of $200 million – but the three individuals pulling the strings never had any intention of paying this money back.
“The scope of the criminal fraud enterprise required Ikram and his 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,” the Justice Department said, in a press release.
Now, Ikram is looking at a 30 year jail sentence for his crimes, including fines of up to $1 million, or twice the gain or loss from the scheme. Azhar Ikram and Lal will be sentenced on September 17, facing the same potential prison term, while Ikram will be sentence on September 23.
The investigation was mounted by the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, established by President Barack Obama to “wage an aggressive, coordinated and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes.” The task force is inter-agency, and has been responsible for a large number of successful investigations since its inception during the Obama Administration.
2 Comments
I was shocked after reading this article! Yeah, some people used to earn money in a bad way, to steal for example! Of course this guy must be in a jail. My opinion is that we must live with our means but to steal it`s a shame for me. Two years ago I lost my work. My situation was very bad because I got mortgage and it was risk to loose my home! My friend advised me to get loan and it`s helped me to meet expenses. So, keep in mind that you can get these credit products.
Azhar Ikram is certainly not a 4 year old boy.