NEW YORK — Some 55 people have been charged with forming a New York City fraud ring that used members' jobs at a prominent charity and other places to steal financial information from wealthy donors and customers.
Arraignments were expected Friday in the case.
Prosecutors say in indictments that participants in the scheme had jobs that involved processing donor or customer checks. One worked at the UJA-Federation, a major Jewish charity.
Prosecutors say she and other members of the ring harvested people's personal information from the checks and provided it to accomplices.
Then the accomplices would forge checks, deposit them in still other associates' bank accounts and withdraw the money as soon as it cleared.
UJA-Federation says it worked with authorities and fired the employee.
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NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) – The Manhattan District Attorney’s office has indicted 55 people who are accused of running an identity theft and cyber crime ring.
Prosecutors say in indictments that participants in the scheme had jobs that involved processing donor or customer checks. One worked at the UJA-Federation, a major Jewish charity.
Prosecutors say she and other members of the ring harvested people’s personal information from the checks and provided it to accomplices.
Then the accomplices would forge checks, deposit them in still other associates’ bank accounts and withdraw the money as soon as it cleared.
UJA-Federation issued a statement in response to the indictments:
“UJA-Federation suspended the employee on August 1, 2011, upon being identified by the District Attorney’s office in connection with these activities, and the employee has been terminated from our employment.
The District Attorney’s office has advised us that no donor suffered any financial losses, and that banks and credit card companies were targeted by and were the victims of this crime ring.”
The 55 suspects are accused of stealing of a total of about $2 million from several different banks and companies, including TD Bank, Citibank, Chase American Express and Discover.
Sources say several defendants are linked to a Brooklyn street gang called The Outlaws and at least one person in the case was killed during the 18-month investigation.
The suspects are expected to be arraigned on Friday.
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