Growing menace in society.
AB Wire
NEW YORK: Seven South Asian-origin individuals, including Indian Americans, have been arrested and charged in an alleged credit card fraud and identity theft ring that generated more than $500,000 in illegally obtained cash and merchandise from stores across Central and North Jersey, reported mycentraljersey.com.
The seven were arrested after a three-week investigation by the Westfield Police Department, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Union County Prosecutor’s Office’s Special Prosecutions Unit. The initial acts of alleged fraud were uncovered at Lord & Taylor outlet in Westfield.
Harpreet Singh, 35, of the Iselin section of Woodbridge, Vidhi Vohra, 26, and Kunal Vohra, 23, both of the Avenel section of Woodbridge, were charged with two counts of second-degree theft, according to the report.
Jaswinder Singh, 53, of the Colonia section of Woodbridge, Saeed Choudry, 52, and Anjum Sabar, 34, both of Queens, New York, were charged with second-degree possession of identifying documents to facilitate fraud. Saquib Khan, 29, of Parlin, was charged with two counts of third-degree receiving stolen property.
Acting Union County Prosecutor Grace H. Park said the defendants obtained multiple forms of government-issued identifying documents from people with Indian and U.S. citizenship from August 2014 through April 2015.
Harpreet Singh, Vidhi Vohra and Kunal Vohra then allegedly used these documents to obtain fraudulent driver’s licenses, which they then used to fraudulently obtain credit cards and gift cards from a variety of department and chain stores, Park said, reported mycentraljersey.com.
Using the credit cards and gift cards as payment, the defendants made numerous purchases of merchandise, including power tools, high-end jewelry, TAG Heuer watches, iPhones, Beats by Dre headphones, and cases of expensive liquor such as Johnnie Walker Blue Label scotch, according to the investigation.
As a result of the investigation, approximately $540,000 in cash was frozen and more than $75,000 in merchandise and more than 250 driver’s licenses and credit cards were recovered from various properties owned and rented by the defendants, the report said.
News update: On December 4, 2015, the Superior Court of New Jersey dismissed the charges against Vidhi Vohra.
Judge William A. Daniel ruled that charges against Vohra be dismissed after “the application of the Vicinage Chief Probation Officer and after having considered the report of the Pretrial Intervention Program concerning the defendant’s participation along with the recommendation of the Criminal Division Manager and with the consent of the Prosecutor and the defendant.”
(This story was revised with a news update, on December 23, 2015).