Derby Man Accused Of Fraudulent Credit Card Charges: Police

WESTPORT, CT — A 35-year-old Derby man was arrested for a second time last week by Westport police in connection with fraudulent credit card charges to an unnamed Westport company that previously employed the suspect.

Jaiman Shah was first arrested by Westport police in June after authorities said he "used American Express points from a company credit card to make over $16,500.00 in personal purchases."

That case was reported to police in early March, and when arrested Shah was charged with second-degree larceny, credit card theft and receipt of goods by the illegal use a credit card. He was released after posting a court-set bond of $50,000, and the case is still pending.

"While investigating this original complaint, the investigating officer was again contacted by the victim (on Sunday March 10, 2019) reporting that upon researching further in Shah's activities while employed at the company additional acts of fraud were discovered," wrote Westport police in a statement. "In one of these instances, Shah had used a combination of rewards points as well as American Express credit to make personal purchases from Amazon.com totaling $367.44."

Westport police obtained a new warrant for Shah's arrest on charges of sixth-degree larceny, credit card theft and receipt of goods obtained by the illegal use of a credit card. Again, the bond for Shah was set at $50,000 by a court.

Soon after, a third accusation of embezzlement by Shah was reported by the company to Westport police.

"In this case, again Shah had used this same company credit card without authorization to make a purchase of $3,923.99 under the guise that it was a legitimate piece of computer equipment needed by the company, however he had done so using a fraudulent eBay account over which he had control," said Westport police. "Search warrants for records from both eBay and PayPal confirmed that this purchase was fraudulent, that a nonexistent item had been purchased from an eBay account over which Shah had control, and that the funds for the purchase were received from a PayPal account over which Shah also had control."

Again, Westport police obtained a warrant for Shah's arrest, this time charging him with second-degree larceny (by embezzlement), third-degree larceny (by embezzlement) and receipt of goods obtained by the illegal use of a credit card. For this case, the court set the bond at $75,000.

On Aug. 9, Shah surrendered to police on the two outstanding warrants and posted the combined $125,000 bond. He is scheduled to appear in Norwalk Superior Court on the new charges on Aug. 19.