Brooklyn Man Sentenced To More Than 9 Years In Prison For Multimillion-Dollar Identity Theft And Fraud Scheme

Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that JAMAL SIMON was sentenced today by United States District Judge Paul A. Crotty to 115 months in prison for his participation in an identity theft scheme.  SIMON previously pled guilty before Judge Crotty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of aggravated identity theft, and one count of wrongfully obtaining individually identifiable health information. 

U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said:  “Jamal Simon and his co-conspirators developed a sophisticated scheme to steal from financial institutions and their customers.  Through brazen identity theft and fraud, Simon stole millions of dollars from credit card companies and banks.  Thanks to the skilled investigative work of the FBI, the defendants’ crime spree has been brought to a halt.”

According to the allegations in the Indictment, other documents filed in the case, and statements made in court, including during SIMON’s guilty plea:

From March 2017 through at least July 2017, SIMON and his co-conspirators carried out a wide-ranging fraud scheme that involved unlawfully obtaining individually identifiable information of other individuals (including names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, birthdates, bank account numbers, credit and debit card numbers, and cellphone service provider account numbers); impersonating those individuals in order to obtain unauthorized access to their bank accounts, credit and debit card accounts, and cellphone service provider accounts; and then using such access to, among other things, facilitate the fraudulent transfer of funds to bank accounts controlled by members of the conspiracy and the unauthorized purchasing of merchandise and gift cards at retail stores.  In some cases, SIMON transferred victims’ telephone numbers to a cellphone controlled by SIMON so that he and his co-conspirators could circumvent credit card companies’ standard security measures that confirm suspicious transactions through text message or email to the consumer. 

The scheme perpetrated by SIMON and his co-conspirators defrauded financial institutions and individual victims of more than $3.5 million.

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In addition to the prison term, SIMON, 31, was also sentenced to three years of supervised release, ordered to pay $2,430,771.05 in restitution, and ordered to forfeit $500,000.

Mr. Berman praised the outstanding investigating work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

If you believe you were a victim of this crime, including a victim entitled to restitution, and you wish to provide information to law enforcement and/or receive notice of future developments in the case or additional information, please contact the Victim/Witness Unit at the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, at (866) 874-8900.  For additional information, go to: http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/nys/victimwitness.html.

The prosecution is being handled by the Office’s Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit.  Assistant United States Attorneys Nicholas W. Chiuchiolo and Robert B. Sobelman are in charge of the prosecution.