ESSEX – Dashawn Duncan, 27, of South Orange, was sentenced July 28 to 24 months in prison for his role in conspiring to defraud two banks of $250,000 using stolen credit cards and blank checks, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig announced.
Duncan, and coconspirators Nasheed Jackson, 24, of Newark, and Alexander Varice, 22, of South Orange, previously pleaded guilty by video before U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton to Informations charging each of them with one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud. Judge Wigenton imposed Duncan’s sentence today via video conference. Jackson was sentenced to 2 years on July 22, 2021, and Varice is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 7, 2021.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court: From August 2018 through January 2020, Varice, Jackson, and Duncan engaged in a scheme to use stolen credit cards or checks to fraudulently make purchases and withdraw money from two banks. The credit cards were stolen from facilities used by the U.S. Postal Service in Pine Brook and Warren, New Jersey, and never reached the intended cardholders.
After obtaining the stolen cards, Varice, Jackson, and Duncan used them to make unauthorized purchases at various retail stores and to withdraw cash from automated teller machines (ATMs) in New Jersey and elsewhere. The blank checks were also stolen from various New Jersey-based post office facilities, and never reached their intended recipients. Varice and Jackson altered the date, payee, and amount of the stolen checks prior to deposit into a third-party account so that they could manually enter the amounts that they wanted to fraudulently withdraw from a victim bank ATM.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Wigenton sentence Duncan to five years of supervised release.
Acting U.S. Attorney Honig credited postal inspectors of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, under the direction of Acting Inspector in Charge Rodney M. Hopkins in Newark, with the investigation leading to the sentencing.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Blake Coppotelli of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Economic Crimes Unit in Newark.
