48 Charged in Large Scale Fraud Scheme That Targeted Atlantic City Casinos

A total of 48 people have been indicted in a scheme in which numerous people impersonated holders of legitimate business bank accounts in order to steal more than half a million dollars from the accounts, withdrawing most of the funds at casinos in Atlantic City, Acting Attorney General Robert Lougy said on Monday.

They allegedly targeted business accounts at JP Morgan Chase Bank, stealing more than $570,000 from 27 business bank accounts in two schemes carried out between February 2011 and August 2012.

After bank investigators detected fraudulent activity involving funds being withdrawn by wire transfers and cash advances at Atlantic City casinos, New Jersey State Police opened an investigation. In 2013, there was an indictment charging 23 people in connection with the first scheme.

Seven people who have remained fugitives are charged again in this superseding indictment.

The new indictment charges all 48 people with first-degree racketeering, which carries a sentence of 10 to 20 years in state prison, including a mandatory period of parole ineligibility equal to 85 percent of the sentence imposed.

Andrew Henry, 40, of Bayside, N.Y., and Alexandria Smith, 29, of Brooklyn, N.Y. have been identified as the ring leaders.

Henry faces additional charges of first-degree conspiracy, first-degree money laundering and second-degree theft by deception. Smith faces additional charges of conspiracy, money laundering and theft by deception, all in the second degree. The other 46 defendants face additional charges of third-degree conspiracy, theft and money laundering.

Two other ringleaders, Johnny Cobb, 33, of Jamaica, N.Y., and Nurlin Wright, 37, of Brooklyn, N.Y., were indicted in 2013 in connection with the first scheme. Cobb and Wright each pleaded guilty to conspiracy and racketeering charges and each man was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2014.

Henry, Smith, Cobb and Wright allegedly recruited people into the schemes, including some who impersonated owners/signers of legitimate business bank accounts and others, called “bodies,” who opened fraudulent accounts in their own names and withdrew stolen funds.

Henry allegedly obtained confidential identifying information on victim bank accounts and supplied money used to open the bogus bank accounts that were used in the first scheme.

In the first scheme, the leaders would recruit a person to open a fraudulent small business account with JP Morgan Chase Bank.

This person, called “a body,” would use his or her real name and identification to open the account, which would be opened under a bogus business name.

At the same time or soon after, another person – who was instructed to dress and act “corporate” and who was given fraudulent photo identification in the name of an owner/signer of a legitimate JP Morgan Chase business account – would be added on as a joint owner of the new fraudulent bank account.

This person was called the “add-on.” The add-on enabled the defendants to establish a link between the targeted bank account and the fraudulent account.

Once the accounts were linked, the leaders would transfer funds from the legitimate account to the fraudulent account by telephone or online transaction.

The funds would then be withdrawn from the fraudulent account by wiring them to Atlantic City casinos for pick-up by one or more “bodies,” or the “bodies” would be transported to Atlantic City casinos with credit cards from the fraudulent accounts and would be instructed to make Global Cash Advance withdrawals of the funds.

The “bodies” and “add-ons” allegedly received a smaller cut of the stolen funds for their efforts.

In the second round of thefts, between April and August 2012, the defendants again posed as account holders to gain access to legitimate business bank accounts at JP Morgan Chase, but this time they requested additional debit/credit cards on the accounts in the name of co-conspirators, which the co-conspirators used to make Global Cash Access withdrawals in Atlantic City.