NEW ROCHELLE, NY — Secret Service Agents, accompanied by New Rochelle Police officers, executed an arrest warrant Tuesday on an apartment on the 37th floor of the Skyline New Rochelle at 40 Memorial Highway in the City’s downtown. The arrest was related to a credit card fraud ring that, to date, made stolen credit card purchases of approximately $3,000,000.
According to court records filed on Wednesday, the conspiracy involves a network of individuals who travel around the United States in order to use stolen credit card information to purchase gift cards, flights, hotels, rental cars, and other goods and services. Women are often recruited via social media, with promises of easy profits, to fly to various locations to make fraudulent purchases.
One witness described what appeared to be 20 Secret Service agents and police officers dressed in SWAT gear arriving at the location shortly after 10:30 p.m. on January 8th.
New Rochelle Police Captain Cosmo Costa said his agency received a request “at about 1900hrs…to assist the Secret Service with a search warrant.”
Costa directed Talk of the Sound to the Secret Service for additional details. The Public Information Office of the Department of Homeland Security is closed during the government shut down. No further information was provided by the Secret Service.
Sources within the USPS are scared to talk about the matter, saying it is all “hush hush”.
According to witnesses, the people in the apartment had not lived more than a few months. 2 or 3 people were detained in the hallway as the Secret Service tossed the apartment.
One source said the raid was extension of the New Rochelle Post Office investigation which we reported on November 14th. At that time we reported on allegations related to moving drugs and cash through the mail, stealing checks, check washing and more. At the time, NRPD was able to confirm of one arrest by Federal agents.
“We were advised of an arrest of a mail carrier by the postal authorities,” said Captain Cosmo Costa, Commanding Officer of the Criminal Investigations Division of the New Rochelle Police Department. “It is our understanding that US District Court would handle the proceedings.“
Hamilton Eromosele, a leader of the network, is alleged to be responsible for obtaining stolen credit card information through the “dark web” and other sources. Eromosele also recruited women on various social media platforms to execute the fraud and made travel arrangements for co-conspirators. Eromosele collected his co-conspirators’ fraudulently purchased gift cards or luxury goods, sold them for cash, and dispersed a percentage of the proceeds to the co-conspirators.
Also alleged to be part of the conspiracy are Edward Dorsey, George Edandison, And Quincy Wielingen, each of whom is alleged to have made numerous trips. throughout the United States to carry out the scheme.
The “dark web” refers to a portion of the Internet that is only accessible by means of special software that is designed to make the activity of users and
website operators less overt.
Edandison was previously charged for his participation in this conspiracy and made an initial appearance in Federal Court on October 23, 2018, before the Honorable Leda Dunn.
On or about May 28, 2016, law enforcement arrested Eromosele at a hotel in East Rutherford, New Jersey, after a women reported that women were being held against their will and that there was a credit card scheme underway in rooms 301 and 302. Law enforcement found room 301 unoccupied, with approximately nineteen Discover credit cards embossed with the names of females who were not the true account holders. Law enforcement officers found Eromosele in room 302 with handwritten notes listing retailers, dollar amounts, and names embossed on the fraudulent credit cards found in room 301, and two black laptops.
One of the laptops belonging to Eromosele contained on its hard drive dozens of text files that listed hundreds of credit card accounts and other corresponding identifying information. At least 700 of the credit card accounts listed in these text files have been confirmed as stolen. The laptop also contained dozens of emails from several synched email accounts, as well as other documents on its hard drive, concerning lists of stolen credit card account numbers and other corresponding identifying information sent to members of the conspiracy, and hotel and flight reservation confirmations and receipts in the names of many different individuals, and credit card authorization emails sent to hotels permitting a guest to charge the credit card of another individual.
On or around November 2016, law enforcement lawfully seized a
cellular telephone from Eromosele, which Eromosele stated belonged to him which revealed a variety of evidence of Eromosele’s fraud, including his attempts to recruit women on social media to participate in the scheme, photographs of lists of credit card account information, text messages
conveying credit card information and photographs of credit card authorizations for hotels in the names of other individuals, and photographs of
Eromosele with stacks of money.
Approximately a year later, on or around November 2017, a cellular telephone known by law enforcement to be operated by Eromosele, provided a travel agent in California with a Discover credit card account for a flight purchase. The Discover card account was declined. Eromosele subsequently began to recruit the Travel Agent, via text message, to participate in the stolen credit card scheme. The Travel Agent requested a picture of the individual with whom she was communicating, and Eromosele sent his picture.
Around that same time, on or about November 29, 2017, law enforcement approached Edandison in an airport in Oklahoma City. After being advised of his Miranda rights, Edandison admitted he had flown from New Yorl City to Oklahoma City on or about November 25, 2017, on a flight purchased with a stolen Discover credit card account. He stated that, while in Oklahoma City, he met up with a co-conspirator and both made purchases using stolen Discover credit card information, including, among other things, a Rolex watch and various Lowe’s gift cards.
Approximately seven months later on or about June 27, 2018, law enforcement in Putnam County, Indiana, stopped a vehicle driven by Edandison. He initially identified himself under an alias. Law enforcement conducted a lawful search of the vehicle which revealed,
among other things, fake identification cards bearing Edandison’s photograph and fraudulent Discover and Mastercard credit cards.
Also on or about June 27, 2018, Edandison gave written consent for law enforcement to search an iPhone located in the vehicle which contained a WhatsApp conversation with a contact bearing a profile photograph of Eromosele and communications which concerned the use of stolen and instructions from Eromosele to Edandison about the execution of the scheme.
Approximately two months later, on or about August 27, 2018, law enforcement arrested Eromosele at a hotel in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. Law enforcement in the hotel’s parking lot saw Eromosele in the driver’s seat of a parked blue Ford Edge. He identified himself to law enforcement as “Emmanuel Eromosele.” The Ford Edge had been rented using a stolen Discover credit card account, was never returned to the rental agency, and had been reported stolen on or about
August 18, 2018.
Video surveillance from the hotel showed Eromosele checking in to two rooms with an adult female on or about August 20, 2018. On or about August 29, 2018, after the reservation for the rooms had ended and the guests could not be located, hotel management gathered the items remaining in the rooms, which included a laptop, and contacted law enforcement. Pursuant to a valid warrant, law enforcement searched the hotel, and found text files containing over 150 stolen Discover credit card account numbers, including the stolen Discover account used to rent the Ford Edge.
On or about July 22, 2016, law enforcement in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, made a lawful stop of a vehicle driven by a co-conspirator and occupied by another co-conspirator and Dorsey. A co-conspirator verbally consented to a search of the vehicle, which revealed approximately four fraudulent Bank of America credit cards in Dorsey’s name. After being advised of his Miranda rights, Dorsey admitted to using stolen credit card information to purchase a gift card found in the vehicle. On or about January 11, 2017, in Pennsylvania, Dorsey pled guilty to possessing instruments of crime.
Dorsey took flights in furtherance of the scheme,purchased with stolen credit card accounts, on at least ten occasions.
On or around October 2017, Dorsey and Wielingen traveled to Colorado to. execute the credit card scheme. Video surveillance at multiple convenience stores in the Colorado Springs area shows Dorsey and Wielingen purchasing gift cards using stolen Discover credit card accounts.
Both Dorsey and Wielingen also purchased separate hotel rooms in
Colorado hotels with stolen Discover credit cards on or about October 21, 2017.
On or about October 23, 2017, Dorsey and Wielingen were scheduled to fly from Denver to Newark on tickets purchased with a stolen Discover credit card account. Dorsey and Wielingen missed their scheduled flight. Wielingen took a different flight, and, upon his arrival in Newark, law enforcement intercepted Wielingen. He consented to a search of his bag, which revealed a fake driver’s license bearing Wielingen’s photograph, and approximately forty-six gift cards purchased using stolen
Discover credit card accounts. Approximately ten months later, on or about August 8, 2018, law enforcement in Wood County, Ohio arrested Wielingen and Edandison. Law enforcement stopped a rental car, driven by Wielingen for traffic violations and then performed a probable cause search of the vehicle based on the presence of suspected marijuana.
During the search of the Rental Car, law enforcement placed Wielingen and Edandison in separate patrol cars. Wielingen attempted to dispose of two fraudulent Wells Fargo credit cards and (b) multiple fake identifications bearing Edandison’s picture but the names seen on the credit cards. Edandison – while in a different patrol car – similarly attempted to dispose of a fake driver’s license that bore the name on the rental agreement for Rental Car. Law enforcement later discovered that the Rental Car had been purchased using a stolen Discover credit card account.