NEWARK, N.J. – An Essex County, New Jersey, man today admitted scheming with others to use credit cards and checks that were stolen from the mail by at least two U.S. Postal Service (USPS) employees to make hundreds of thousands of dollars of purchases, Attorney for the United States Vikas Khanna announced.
Adeeb Salih, 30, of East Orange, New Jersey, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Kevin McNulty in Newark federal court to an information charging him with conspiracy to commit bank fraud.
According to documents filed in this and other cases and statements made in court:
Salih obtained checks, including U.S. Treasury checks, and credit cards from Yaseen Salih, 25, and Jahad Salter, 26, who had recruited USPS employees, including Khadijah Banks Oneal, 31, and Ashley Taylor, 28, to steal the credit cards and checks from the mail in exchange for compensation. Once they obtained the stolen credit cards, Adeeb Salih, Yaseen Salih, and Salter fraudulently posed as the accountholders of the stolen cards when calling the banks that issued the cards and used personal identifying information belonging to the accountholders to obtain or change information about the stolen credit cards. They then used the stolen credit cards to make purchases in New Jersey and elsewhere. Adeeb Salih also caused the stolen checks to be deposited into bank accounts that he controlled and withdrew proceeds from those checks from the accounts in the form of cash. This resulted in attempted losses of over $250,000.
Yaseen Salih, Salter, Banks-Oneal, and Taylor previously pleaded guilty for their respective roles in this scheme and are awaiting sentencing.
The charge of conspiracy to commit bank fraud carries a maximum punishment of 30 years in prison and a maximum fine of $1 million. Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 10, 2023.
Attorney for the United States Khanna credited postal inspectors of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Newark, under the direction of Inspector in Charge Damon Wood, Philadelphia Division; and special agents of the U.S. Postal Service, Office of Inspector General, Northeast Area Field Office, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Matthew Modafferi, with the investigation leading to the charges. He also thanked the U.S. Marshals Service, District of New Jersey; the U.S. Secret Service, New York Field Office; the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, Mid-Atlantic Field Division; the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations, Newark Field Office; the Livingston, New Jersey Police Department; the Newark Police Department; the Essex County Sheriff’s Office; the New Providence, New Jersey, Police Department; and the Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, Police Department, for their assistance.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara F. Merin of the Special Prosecutions Division in Newark.