Four Men Scammed LI Banks Of Nearly $200,000

Following a guilty plea on Thursday, Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas announced the results of a two-year-long investigation that led to the convictions of four men for defrauding Capital One Bank of nearly $200,000.

The four men were Philip Thompson, aka Dutch, 29, of Hempstead; Dale Braithwaite, aka D-Money, 37, of Elmont; Raymond Hughes, 26, of Hempstead; and Osvaldo Fernandez, 35, of Passaic, New Jersey. All four pleaded guilty over the last few months to a scheme that defrauded Capital One Bank of $190,000.

“These defendants engaged in an intricate fraud scheme to steal more than $190,000 from Capital One Bank,” Singas said. “Working together, these defendants opened more than 50 bank accounts and through an elaborate ATM scam were able to steal money in small increments.”

From Jan. 1, 2015 through June 30, 2016, the four men recruited acquaintances to open Capital One Bank personal checking accounts in Nassau and Queens with an initial deposit of around $50. Shortly after, usually $40 of the initial $50 was withdrawn from the account via an ATM transaction. Next, an individual, who may or may not be the account holder, conducted several balance inquiries of the account using an ATM, which generated a receipt.

A few days later, one of the four scammers called Capital One using the information on the receipt, and falsely reported that he made a cash ATM deposit into one of the accounts and that the deposit was not properly credited. Capital One provisionally credited the account and the amount that was deposited varied from $850 to $2,200.

Once the funds were provisionally credited to the account, they were withdrawn in one of two ways: participants in the scheme withdrew the funds via an ATM or teller transaction in Nassau and elsewhere; or participants in the scheme used the debit card linked to the account to purchase United States Postal Money Orders from post offices. Once purchased, the money orders were given to various people who cashed them at another post office branch on the same day.

In total, the defendants opened more than 50 fraudulent bank accounts, causing Capital One to suffer a loss of more than $190,000.

Singas sais that Thompson acted as the ring leader, making more than 100 fraudulent phone calls to Capital One and providing instructions to the others and when to make withdrawals.

Thompson was arrested Jan. 12 in Florida and pleaded guilty on Thursday first-degree scheme to defraud. He is due back in court on May 17 and is expected to be sentenced to 1-1/2 years to three years in prison.

Braithwaite pleaded guilty on Feb. 14 to first-degree scheme to defraud and fifth-degree conspiracy. He is due back in court on April 23 and faces a maximum of four years in prison.

Hughes was arrested on Oct. 13, 2017 and pleaded guilty on Dec. 7, 2017 to first-degree scheme to defraud and fifth-degree conspiracy. He is due back in court on May 18 and faces a maximum of four years in prison.

Fernandez was arrested on Oct. 20, 2017 and pleaded guilty on Jan. 9 to fifth-degree conspiracy. He is due back in court on April 27 and faces a maximum of one year in jail.

Photo: Clockwise from top left is Dale Braithwaite, Raymond Hughes, Phillip Thompson and Osvaldo Fernandez. Photos courtesy Nassau County District Attorney's Office.