Five Long Islanders are among 111 people accused of victimizing thousands of people in five New York City-based identity theft rings with international ties that involved bank tellers, restaurant workers and other service employees, authorities said Friday.
The NYPD and Queens prosecutors announced the round up and 10 indictments that include hundreds of charges and has been termed one of the largest—if not the largest—such case in U.S. history. The alleged scams stretched to China, Europe and the Middle East.
“These weren’t holdups at gunpoint, but the impact on victims was the same,” NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. “They were robbed.”
The suspects from LI include 25-year-old Benny Ahdoot of Mineola, 34-year-old Susan Persaud of Oceanside and Valley Stream residents Sanjay Deowsarran, 37, Ahmar Lacorte and Irina Pervukhina, both 22.
The enterprise had been operating since at least 2010 and included at least one bank and restaurants, mostly in Queens. Authorities say the scheme operated like this:
At least three bank workers, retail employees and restaurant workers would steal credit card numbers in a process known as skimming, in which workers take information from when a card is swiped for payment and illegally sell the credit card numbers. Different members of the criminal enterprise would steal card information online.
The numbers were then given to teams of manufacturers, who would forge Visas, MasterCards, Discover and American Express cards. Realistic identifications were made with the stolen data.
The plastic would be given to teams of criminal “shoppers” for spending sprees at higher-end stores in the Americana Mall in Manhasset, Roosevelt Field Mall, Walt Whitman Mall and Smithtown Mall—among others. The groups would then resell the merchandise oversees.
All told, more than $13 million was spent on iPads, iPhones, computers, watches and fancy handbags from Gucci and Louis Vuitton, authorities said. The suspects also charged pricey hotel rooms and rented private jets and fancy cars, prosecutors said.
Part of the problem, especially for foreign tourists in the U.S., is that, unlike overseas, credit card companies in the U.S. do not install special microchips that make skimming more difficult, investigators said. But he said the companies work with police to help fight theft.
Police searched several homes and seized computers, packaged electronics, and $650,000 in cash, along with several weapons.
The charges include enterprise corruption, theft and grand larceny. Many of the accused members of the theft ring are being held on steep bail.
-With Associated Press.
