I stole something, once. I was about 7 and in Woolworth’s with my mother.
There was this very cool little artillery cannon intended for use with those old-fashioned green soldiers. The item was 27 cents. My mother denied my request and by sleight of hand, the toy ended in my pocket. When she saw me playing the same toy at home later that day, my mother challenged me. When I ‘fessed up, she took me back to Woolworth’s to meet the store manager personally and return the object. After that, I was on the golden path.
Her punishment, which I vividly remember many decades later, was far more compelling than what was pronounced in the state of NJ recently for running a credit card scam that amounted to $200 million.
- A New Jersey man who owned a Jersey City jewelry store that played a central role in a credit card fraud scheme that stole about $200 million by creating more than 7,000 false identities was sentenced Tuesday to a year in prison.
One year. $200 million. Hmmm.
- S. District Judge Anne E. Thompson handed out the sentence in federal court in Trenton. The case is one of the largest credit card fraud schemes ever prosecuted by the federal government.
Jeeze, Louise. The crook was ordered to return $270,000, which was cash on hand. Where is the remaining $199,730,000 or so? Vaporized. Nowhere to be found. Maybe after a year in jail it might surface somewhere in the Garden State.
- Sat Verma, 65, of the Iselin section of Woodbridge, will also be subject to three years of supervised release and was ordered to forfeit $270,000, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement Tuesday. He previously pleaded guilty to access device fraud.
- The ring allegedly created around 25,000 fake credit cards by using thousands of false identities and hundreds of fake driver’s licenses and other fraudulent materials to open the accounts.
- The scam artists used more than 1,800 “drop addresses,” including houses, apartments and post office boxes as the mailing addresses for the false identities.
The card industry puts billions into protecting against fraud, but the prosecution is limp.
Judge Thompson, are you kidding?
Overview by Brian Riley, Director, Credit Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group
Read the quoted story here
