Kings County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes Announces Indictments in $10,000-Per-Day Criminal Enterprise

THIRTEEN FACE 263 COUNTS IN THREE INDICTMENTS CHARGING
 ID THEFT, CREDIT CARD FRAUD, AUTO-INSURANCE FRAUD AND
REAL ESTATE FRAUD IN BROOKLYN, QUEENS,
NASSAU COUNTY, NEW JERSEY AND PHILADELPHIA 

Brooklyn, October 7, 2009 – Kings County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes today announced the indictment of 13 people charged, in three separate indictments, in a wide-ranging criminal enterprise that included real estate fraud, identity theft and credit card fraud, and a conspiracy involving automobile insurance fraud. The indictments are the results of an 18-month, joint investigation with the U.S. Secret Service.

The first indictment, containing 164 counts including Enterprise Corruption, charges four defendants – Ryan Foster, Nathaniel Mahone, Jacques Sylvestre, and Yanira Santiago – with operating a credit-card fraud and identity theft ring, which at times netted as much as $10,000 per day, between 2006 and 2008. They are charged with purchasing credit card numbers from private Internet sites in Russia and the Ukraine and using the information to manufacture fake credit cards in various Brooklyn sites they called the “lab”. Then the defendants sent hired “shoppers” to stores, such as Game Stop, Best Buy, Home Depot, Lowe’s, Zales, Louis Vuitton and Ford’s Jewelers, where they would purchase items the ringleaders would later sell, according to the indictment.

The Enterprise Corruption indictment also charges the defendants with purchasing properties through mortgage fraud and using the merchandise stolen from home improvement stores, such as Lowe’s and Home Depot, to increase the values of the homes. The properties could then be re-appraised at higher values, and the defendants could get the mortgages refinanced, according to the indictment. Another aspect of the scheme involved orchestrating fraudulent purchases and sales of the properties, by employing straw buyers and using crooked real estate brokers and loan officers to help them file false paperwork.

In a second, 97-count indictment, Foster, Mahone, Sylvestre and nine others are charged with conspiring to make false accident, vandalism and theft claims on late-model luxury cars, such as BMW, Land Rover, Lexus, Mercedes Benz and Cadillac. The indictment charges that the defendants would remove undamaged interior parts, such as air bags, dash boards, door panels and seats, and replace them with damaged parts. Then they would report to police that the cars had been vandalized near their homes and file claims with their insurance companies to have the damaged car parts replaced, according to the indictment. The investigation revealed that the same damaged car parts were recycled and used repeatedly in separate claims. The defendants are also charged with staging accidents and car thefts to collect insurance payments.

To read the full press release, click here.