An informant helped authorities unravel an elaborate identity theft and check-cashing scheme involving stolen government checks, and now 19 Atlantans face federal prison after their convictions in the case,
Several members of the theft ring also were convicted in U.S. District Court in Atlanta of defrauding Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club by using store credit cards obtained with bogus IDs to purchase merchandise, gift cards and gas.
Sentencing is next for the ring, which operated from about June 2012 until September 2014, prosecutors said.
Members carried out both frauds by creating fake driver's licenses and falsified documents to cash tax refund and Social Security checks and obtain store credit cards, respectively, prosecutors said.
In the first instance, government checks were stolen from the U.S. mail by some members of the ring and sold to other members. The members buying the checks would then pay another party to create fake driver’s licenses that could be used to cash the checks at metro Atlanta retailers, including Publix and Wal-Mart, prosecutors said.
The use of an informant allowed federal authorities, including the FBI, to recover the stolen checks, and the retailers were reimbursed, prosecutors said.
The credit card fraud at Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club was carried out at stores in Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama, prosecutors said.
The defendants convicted in either one or both of the schemes include • Asad Abdullah, 37; Erica Willis, 36; Hussain Abdullah, 34; Hudhayfah Abdullah, 32; Hafid Abdur-Rabbani, 37; Ibrahim Abdur-Rabbani, 33; Khalil Majeed, 35; Ali Al-Amin, 36; Zakariyah Abdullah, 35; Sayeed Valdez, 38; Antonio Slaton, 37; Cory Howell, 43; Damion Davis, 31; Dexter Willis, 36; JoAnn Drigo, 37; Muhajid Ahmad, 33; Billee Cosby, 34; Mikal Majeed, 33 and Jasmine Proctor, 20.
