Queens residents busted in gift card ‘washing’ scheme
BY EMILY DAVENPORT
Thirteen people, including
seven from Queens, were
arrested for their alleged roles
in running a multimilliondollar
gift card “washing”
scheme, prosecutors
announced on July 10.
According to the DA’s office,
the scam included buying
credit card numbers from the
dark web, going on shopping
sprees with the legitimate
gift cards and using an online
option to exchange gift cards
for cash, as well as laundering
money through a Bronx check
cashing establishment. The
operation allegedly generated
roughly $1 million every
month for two years.
The main defendants in
the operation are identified
as Christopher Nathoo, 33, of
Glen Oaks, and his brother
Bryan Nathoo, 30, of Dix Hills,
NY, both of whom allegedly
ran the ring with their wives.
They, as well as the 11 other
defendants, face a 192-count
indictment with enterprise
corruption, grand larceny,
conspiracy and other crimes.
An addendum of the names and
charges of the 13 individuals is
available here.
If convicted, many
of the defendants could
face prison sentences ranging
from one to 25 years.
“This indictment is the
culmination of a three-yearlong
investigation into a
multi-faceted illegal operation
that bilked millions of dollars
from banks and department
stores, and caused extreme
damage to the credit scores
of innumerable citizens,” said
acting District Attorney John
M. Ryan. “The defendants
charged in this case ‘washed’
gift cards purchased with
fraudulent credit cards to
fill their pockets and bank
accounts with millions of
dollars — the bosses allegedly
even did home improvements
using these scrubbed
gift cards. This criminal
enterprise has been shut down
and the defendants face prison
time for their alleged greed at
the expense of others.”
According to charges,
in 2015 the NYPD began
to investigate an illegal
operation (a “fence”) based
in Jamaica, Queens, that was
originally located at 150th
Street, and eventually moved
to Liberty Avenue. The fence,
which was allegedly run
by Christopher and Bryan
Nathoo, allegedly bought
gift cards purchased with
fraudulent credit cards.
Charges say that the Nathoo
brothers allegedly used cash
to buy gift cards that had been
purchased using fraudulent
Photo courtesy of the DA’s office
credit cards and then re-sold
those gift cards to Cardcash.
com, an online gift card
exchange business. However,
the investigation allegedly
found that the scheme was far
more elaborate than this.
The illegal enterprise
allegedly had specific roles
for each individual involved,
including Fence Manager,
Swipers, Shoppers, Fence
Employees, Money Launderer
and more. Those who were
swipers acquired stolen
credit card numbers from
the dark web and embossed
the information onto blank
cards. The swipers would
then use these fake credit
cards and go to stores such
as Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s,
Nordstrom’s and Target and
buy legitimate store gift cards
for varying sums. The swipers
would then sell the legitimate
gift cards to the fence.
Once the cards were in
the fence, according to the
indictment, gift cards would
then allegedly go through
a “washing” process where
swipers or shoppers would
go to department stores, buy
merchandise and return the
items for either a “cleaned”
gift card or store credit,
which would allegedly
further removed from the
fraudulently purchased
gift card, making it less
likely to be connected to
the fraudulently purchased
one and deactivated by
the bank.
Read more at QNS.com.
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