4 Indians charged with $200 million credit card fraud in US

Four Indians are among 10 people who have been charged in the US for their alleged participation in one of the largest credit card fraud schemes here resulting in losses of $200 million.

New Jersey Attorney Paul Fishman said Vinod Dadlani 50, Vijay Verma, 46, Amar Singh, 62 and Tarsem Lal, 74 are among those charged with bank fraud conspiracy, alleging their participation in a scheme to fabricate more than 7,000 false identities to obtain tens of thousands of credit cards.

According to documents filed in the case, the scheme involved a three-step process.

The defendants would make up a false identity by creating fraudulent identification documents and credit profile with major credit bureaus.

They

would then pump up the credit of the false identity by providing false information about that identity's creditworthiness to those credit bureaus.

Finally, they borrowed or spent as much as they could, based on the phony credit history, but did not repay the debts - causing more than $200 million in confirmed losses to businesses and financial institutions.

"The scope of the criminal fraud enterprise required the 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 for the false identities," the complaint said.

If convicted, the defendants face a maximum potential penalty of 30 years in prison and a million dollar fine.