Indian jewelers jailed for credit card fraud

TRENTON, NJ — Two owners of a Jersey City jewelry store have been sentenced in a $200-million international credit card fraud scheme, one of the largest ever charged by federal authorities.

According to a statement from the US Attorney for the District of New Jersey, Vijay Verma, 49, and Tarsem Lal, 78, both of Iselin, were sentenced to 14 months in prison and a year of house arrest, respectively, after previously pleading guilty to their roles in the scheme.

US District Judge Anne Thompson issued the sentence in Trenton federal court on March 27.

Verma and Lal were indicted in October 2013 for fabricating more than 7,000 false identities to obtain tens of thousands of credit cards.

The scheme involved an "elaborate network of false identities" and thousands of "drop addresses" across the country–including houses, apartments and P.O. boxes–which were used as mailing addresses for the false identities.

Credit reports were doctored to "pump up the spending and borrowing power associated with the cards." The men borrowed or spent as much as they could without repaying the debts, causing more than $200 million in losses to businesses and financial institutions.

Verma and Lal both admitted to allowing people to come into their store to use credit cards they knew did not legitimately belong to them. The two men would then split the proceeds of the phony transactions with these other conspirators.

Verma was also sentenced to three years of supervision upon release and Lal was also sentenced to three years of probation. They were both fined $5,000 and were ordered to pay a forfeiture of nearly $500,000.