2 Sentenced In $20,000 Forged Passport Card Scheme

MOUNT VERNON, NY — A Mount Vernon couple in whose home police found forged U.S. passport cards and a machine for making more will serve time in prison, Westchester County District Attorney Anthony A. Scarpino, Jr. announced Thursday.

Hassan Miller, 47, and Dawn Anderson, 49, were sentenced for their part in a scheme that included using fraudulently obtained credit cards to steal from The TJX Companies, Inc. stores, including TJ Maxx, Marshalls, and Home Goods.

Both pleaded guilty in November 2019 to Criminal Possession of a Forged Instrument in the Second Degree, a class D felony.

In addition to the forged passport cards, seized from their home was the instrument used to make the forged cards.

The cards, bearing the identities of victims, were used by Miller, Anderson, and others arrested with them, to assume the identity of their victims and open up new TJX Rewards credit cards.

The credit cards would then be used to charge TJX merchandise, which was never paid for.

As part of their sentences, they will each have a judgment and order for restitution against them in the amount of $20,617.89 benefitting The TJX Companies, Inc.

The scheme was operating from 2017 through 2019. They were arrested in August 2019.

Anderson was sentenced Wednesday and Miller was sentenced earlier this month, both to 1.5 to 4.5 years in state prison, by Westchester County Court Judge David Zuckerman.

Cases against three other co-defendants are still pending.

The investigation was led by the Westchester County Police Department and the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office. The TJX Companies, Inc. were instrumental in the investigation.

Senior Assistant District Attorney Stefanie DeNise, of the Investigations Division Identity Theft Unit, prosecuted the case.