A Newark man was convicted Friday for his role in scheming with at least one U.S. Postal Service (USPS) employee and others to steal credit cards from the mail and then steal victims’ identities in order to use the stolen cards to make hundreds of thousands of dollars of retail and online purchases, Attorney for the United States Vikas Khanna announced.
Federal officials said Dashaun Brown, 28, was convicted on four counts of the superseding indictment against him: conspiracy to commit bank fraud, bank fraud, receipt and possession of stolen mail, and aggravated identity theft in connection with bank fraud, following a week-long trial before U.S. District Judge Kevin McNulty in Newark federal court. Brown was acquitted on one count of bank fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
Dashaun Brown, Jahad Salter, 29, and Hakir Brown,¬ 28, engaged USPS employees, including Khadijah Banks-Oneal, 31, to steal credit cards from the mail in exchange for compensation.
Once they obtained the stolen cards, Dashaun Brown and his conspirators posed as the accountholders of the stolen credit cards when calling the banks that issued the cards and used personal identifying information belonging to the accountholders to activate the cards and to obtain or change information about the stolen credit cards.
They then used the stolen credit cards to make purchases at retail stores in New Jersey and elsewhere, resulting in attempted losses of over $1 million.
Salter, Hakir Brown, and Banks-Oneal previously pleaded guilty for their respective roles in this scheme and are awaiting sentencing.
Salter pleaded guilty on April 12, 2022, to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and being a felon in possession of a firearm, and his sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 30, 2022.
Hakir Brown pleaded guilty on Feb. 25, 2022, to conspiracy to commit bank fraud, and his sentencing is scheduled for July 7, 2022.
Banks-Oneal pleaded guilty on March 30, 2022, to receiving bribes as a federal employee, and he is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 10, 2022.
The charges of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and bank fraud are each punishable by a statutory maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and a maximum fine of $1 million.
The charge of receipt and possession of stolen mail is punishable by a statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000.
The aggravated identity theft charge carries a mandatory penalty of two years in prison, which must run consecutively to any other prison sentence imposed.
Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 6, 2022.