18 of Middle East ethnicity in US ran $200 million credit card scam, losses to be passed on to consumers via higher rates and fees

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2/5/13, "18 charged in $200M credit card fraud scam that created 7,000 new identities," Star-Ledger, Jason Grant

"According to the complaint and officials, most of the 18 defendants have ethnic ties to Pakistan. Six of them live in New Jersey (including four in Iselin); one in Philadelphia, and the rest in New York. Some of the defendants may be related, officials also said, while adding that the entire scheme had strong ties to Jersey City — including to three jewelry stores on Newark Avenue named Ashu Jewels, Tanishq Jewels and Raja Jewels....

Babar Quereshi, 59, of Iselin, and Muhammad Shafiq, 38, of Bellerose, N.Y, are alleged in the 14-page criminal complaint to be the leaders of the fraud that officials say spanned at least 28 states and eight countries.

Many of the defendants, according to the complaint, were not employed during the last five years, yet some still managed to buy luxury automobiles, electronics, spa treatments, expensive clothing and millions of dollars in gold in recent years.

Quereshi alone made a wire transfer of $500,000 last September — and more than $1 million has flowed through one of many personal bank accounts since 2005, the complaint alleges."...via Debbie Schlussel

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2/5/13, "U.S. cracks international credit card fraud ring," USA Today, Strauss, Dugas

"Losses are pegged at more than $200 million but are expected to grow....
  
At least eight in the group --  

Babar Qureshi,  
Muhammad Shafiq, 
Ijaz Butt, 
Qaiser Khan, 
Shafique Ahmed, 
Muhammad Naveed, 
Khawaja Ikram and 
Nasreen Akhtar -- 

have been unemployed since 2008.

Prosecutors identified Qureshi and Shafiq were identified as the group's ringleaders, and linked Shafiq and his brother, Naveed, to 464 credit cards and nearly $2.6 million in losses. Some of those charged also stockpiled cash. At one defendant's home, arresting officers found $68,000 in a kitchen oven.

Some of the defendants are accused of setting up 80 sham companies with little or no legitimate business operations, including jewelry stores in Jersey City, N.J. Those businesses accepted credit card payments and provided bogus credit reports that helped inflate fake cardholders' credit ratings....

By 2012, they had created more than 7,000 false identities to obtain more than 25,000 credit cards. Millions in cash were wired to Pakistan, India, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, China and Japan....

The scam could touch a broad array of consumers. Credit card issuers could pass on losses in the form of higher interest rates and fees, says Al Pascual, senior analyst at Javelin Strategy & Research.

Some consumers whose names were also used as part of the scheme could also be affected."...via Debbie Schlussel

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