3 Accused Of Fraudulently Obtaining Store Credit Cards

NEW ROCHELLE, NY — Three Bronx men were accused of fraudulently obtaining credit cards from several area retail stores.

Westchester County District Attorney Anthony A. Scarpino Jr. said Thursday the three men — Donald Ilo, 57, Patrick Onogwu, 64, and Asanimo Riesa, 38, all from the Bronx — were named in a 54-count indictment for their parts in a scheme that included using fraudulently obtained credit cards to steal from are TJX Companies Inc. stores including TJ Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods.

Onoagwu and Riesa was arraigned Wednesday in Westchester County Court. They were released from jail at the end of last year due to the bail reform law, Scarpino's office said. Their next court date is Nov. 18.

Ilo was never arrested, and there is a warrant out for him.

All three men were charged with fourth-degree conspiracy, a felony.

Other charges in the indictment include:

• Third-degree grand larceny, a felony
• Fourth-degree grand larceny, a felony
• Second-degree identity theft: assume another's identity and obtain goods worth greater than $500, a felony
• Second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument, a felony
• Second-degree forgery, a felony
• Fifth-degree criminal possession of stolen property, a misdemeanor
• Third-degree identity theft: assume another's identity and obtain goods, a misdemeanor

Prosecutors said the conspiracy was carried out from June 13, 2018, through Aug. 14, 2019, focusing on a number of TJX Companies Inc. stores including TJ Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods and HomeSense in Yorktown Heights, New Rochelle, Port Chester, the Bronx and elsewhere.

The three men, and other members and associates, were parties to a conspiratorial agreement to work together to steal more than $50,000 from TJX, authorities said.

The men are accused of applying for and opening TJX Rewards credit cards by using victims' personal identifying information, including Social Security numbers, police said.

Prosecutors said the men used the fraudulently obtained credit card accounts to buy merchandise for which they never paid. Then, they returned some of the stolen goods to other TJX stores on different dates. They are accused of manipulating the refund procedure by obtaining the refund to a debit card, effectively converting the stolen merchandise into cash.

To do all that, prosecutors said the men had to obtain IDs, including Social Security numbers; forge United States passports and driver's licenses; complete credit card applications; forge signatures; open checking accounts linked to debit cards and more.

In the same case, Hassan Miller, 47, and Dawn Anderson, 50, were sentenced in September to 1.5 to 4.5 years each in state prison. They pleaded guilty in November 2019 to second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument, a felony.

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