Vinod Dadlani faces up to 30 years in jail.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC : An Indian American jewelry store owner in New Jersey pleaded guilty on Wednesday to using his business in one of the largest credit card fraud schemes that the US Department of Justice has ever prosecuted.
Fifty-one year-old Vinod Dadlani of Lyndhurst, NJ became the 17th individual associated with the scheme to plead guilty. Dadlani was part of an intricate network of people who were using falsified credit reports to take out credit cards for making purchases and taking out loans that they never would be able to pay back. The Justice Department estimates that the criminal malfeasance totaled close to $200 million.
Dadlani, who was initially indicted in October, was an integral member of the group of co-conspirators that created around 7,000 false identities in order to obtain tens of thousands of credit cards, which they then used freely without having the money to ever pay for. Dadlani’s jewelry store was one of many places where the co-conspirators would use these credit cards, buying up loads of jewelry on fraudulent cards.
“During his guilty plea proceeding, Dadlani admitted he worked with other conspirators, who came to his Jersey City, New Jersey store and allowed them to swipe cards he knew did not legitimately belong to them. Dadlani would then split the proceeds of the phony transactions with the conspirators,” said the Department of Justice, in a press release.
This was all part of a relatively simple three-step process of creating a false identity and credit profile, pumping up the credit score by providing false information, and then running up large charges once these credit cards were approved.
To keep their activities secret, the co-conspirators and Dadlani managed nearly 1,800 “drop addresses” which were used for mailing and receiving documentation for the fake people and businesses they created. These drop addresses included houses, apartments, and post office boxes.
The criminal enterprise was brought down by an investigation conducted by special agents of the FBI’s Cyber Division, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Aaron T. Ford. These agents also worked in conjunction with the US Postal Inspection Service, the US Secret Service, and the Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General, Office of Investigations in New Jersey.
Also involved in dismantling the crime ring was the US Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force (FFETF), which was “created in November 2009 to wage an aggressive, coordinated, and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes.”
Now, for his part in the scheme, Dadlani is facing up to 30 years in prison and $1 million worth of fines, or twice the gain or loss caused by the offense. Dadlani, who pleaded guilty in front of US District Judge Anne E. Thompson in Trenton federal court, is scheduled to be sentenced on September 24.