The US Justice Department has indicted two Gambian men on multiple counts of fraud involving a conspiracy to commit bank and mail fraud and aggravated identity theft.
Omar Leigh, 25, of Smyrna, GA, and Kolley Touray, 39, of Milwaukee, WI, were indicted by a federal grand jury on one felony count each of conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud, four felony counts of bank fraud, one felony count of possession of stolen mail, one felony count of access device fraud, and five felony counts of aggravated identity theft.
US prosecutors said Leigh and Touray conspired to profit from the use of stolen Bank of America customers’ personal identifying information that they had purchased from the Dark Web.
According to court documents, Leigh used the bank’s automated telephone service to request that the bank mail new credit cards and new personal identification numbers, “PINs,” to the addresses on file for the customers.
Investigators from the United States Postal Inspection Service discovered that through the use of software that allowed them to imitate the customers’ telephone numbers, Leigh and Touray were able to defeat the bank’s verification process that relied on comparing the telephone number used to call the bank with the customers’ telephone number it had on file.
“When the bank mailed the new cards and PINs to the addresses on file for the customers, Leigh and Touray drove to the customers’ homes and stole the credit cards and PINs from their mailboxes. Immediately after leaving the residences, Leigh and Touray drove to Bank of America automated teller machines to initiate cash advances on the accounts using the fraudulently obtained credit cards and PINs,” the documents revealed.
If convicted, each count of conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud, and bank fraud carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and/or fines up to US$1 million; possession of stolen mail carries a term of incarceration of 5 years and/or a fine of up to US$250,000.00; and aggravated identity theft is a mandatory two years in prison consecutive to any other term of imprisonment.
