3 Charged With Impersonating Feds To Steal $2 Million: DOJ

CENTRAL ISLIP, NY — Three people were indicted on Monday at federal court in Central Islip for a transnational fraud scheme, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

Kamal Zafar, 51, of South Huntington; Jamal Zafar, 48, of Huntington; and Armughanul Asar, 68, of College Point, were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to launder money as part of a scheme directed at thousands of United States citizens, the DOJ said.

Between January and September 2018, the trio, together with co-conspirators operating from call centers in India, targeted victims across the nation, and falsely claimed to be employees of the IRS, the Social Security Administration or the Drug Enforcement Administration, said Richard P. Donoghue, United States attorney for the eastern district of New York.

The victims were told that they owed a sum of money to the United States government or one of its agencies, and that they would be arrested if the debts were not promptly paid, Donoghue said. After victims wired payments to bank accounts that the defendants had opened in the names of inactive and shell corporations to receive the money, the funds were withdrawn and laundered through additional bank accounts, Donoghue said. The scheme is estimated to have netted over $2 million, according to Donoghue.

"These defendants remotely used ruthless scare tactics and threatened innocent citizens, including the elderly, widows, and professionals, under the guise of having to pay off unfounded financial obligations to the U.S. government for their own personal gain," said Jonathan D. Larsen, IRS-CI special agent-in-charge.

"These indictments reflect the lengths that criminals will go in order to fraudulently separate honest people from their hard earned money," NYPD Commissioner James P. O’Neill said.

If Zafar, Zafar and Asar are convicted, they face up to 20 years in prison.