One Of America's Largest Credit Card Fraud Schemes Involved Bergen Man: Feds

A New Jersey jewelry store owner who used his business to further one of the largest credit card fraud schemes in history was sentenced to two years in prison Wednesday, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Vinod Dadlani, 53, of Lyndhurst, previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud before U.S. District Judge Anne E. Thompson. Thompson imposed the sentence in Trenton federal court, Fishman said.

Dadlani and several others — including Tahir Lodhi, Babar Qureshi, Ijaz Butt — fabricated more than 7,000 false identities to bilk $200 million from businesses and financial institutions, Fishman said.

Many of the debts were incurred at Dadlani's Jersey City jewelry store, among several other locations. Dadlani admitted as part of the plea that he allowed other conspirators to swipe credit cards he knew were not theirs. Dadlani would then split the proceeds of the phony transactions with the conspirators, Fishman said.

Dadlani was indicted in October 2013. Since then, 19 people have pleaded guilty in connection with the scheme.

The conspirators maintained more than 1,800 "drop addresses," including houses, post office boxes, and apartments, which they used as the mailing addresses for the false identities, Fishman said.

In addition to the prison term, Thompson ordered Dadlani to pay $411,000 in forfeiture and sentenced him to two years of supervised release.

The case was brought to court in coordination with President Obama's Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, which was established to combat financial crimes. The task force is composed of more than 20 federal agencies, 94 United States Attorneys' offices, and state and local law enforcement partners.

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