Investigation leads to 88 month prison sentence for the leader of a bank fraud scheme

NEW YORK — The leader of a multimillion-dollar bank fraud scheme was sentenced Tuesday to 88 months in prison for his participation in an elaborate bank fraud scheme that yielded more than $ 2million in ill-gotten gains.  This sentencing follows an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

After a two-week jury trial, a Manhattan jury found Mahabubuz Zaman  guilty on Nov. 12, 2014, of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, conspiracy to commit identification document fraud, and use of a false passport. 
  
The investigation revealed from approximately 2008 through November 2012, Zaman and his co-conspirators allegedly engaged in a bank fraud scheme in which they created hundreds of counterfeit checks, deposited those counterfeit checks into bank accounts they had opened in the names of sham companies in order to fraudulently inflate the balances in those accounts, and then withdrew funds from those bank accounts before the financial institutions were able to determine the fraudulent nature of the checks.  In addition to the check fraud, the defendant and his partners-in-crime also obtained fraudulent mortgages and ran up credit card debt using false identities.  The scheme victimized approximately 15 different banks, resulting in more than $2 million in losses to the banks.

As part of the scheme, the conspirators incorporated sham companies and then opened bank accounts in the names of those sham companies.  The individuals opening the accounts often used false identities, including names and social security numbers, and presented false identification documents, including false Bangladeshi passports and forged U.S. visas.  The accountholders were generally instructed to make small legitimate deposits at first so that the banks would make funds immediately available upon future fraudulent deposits.

Zaman and his co-conspirators obtained copies of legitimate checks and then used the payer account information that appeared on those checks to create counterfeit checks made payable to the sham companies they had incorporated as part of the scheme.  The accountholders deposited the counterfeit checks into the sham company bank accounts at various banks.  The accountholders often made deposits at numerous branches of the same bank on the same day.  These deposits often were made on a Thursday or Friday so that the defendant and his co-conspirators could withdraw the illegal proceeds over the weekend when the banks were closed and were less likely to determine that the checks were counterfeit.

Once the defendant and his co-conspirators confirmed that funds from the counterfeit checks were available for withdrawal, the accountholders were directed to withdraw the funds from the counterfeit checks, typically over the weekend.  The defendant and his co-conspirators often withdrew the funds from global cash access machines at casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey, which did not have daily withdrawal limits.  The accountholders often used false identification documents, including false Bangladeshi passports and fake U.S. visas, when making the withdrawals. 

Zaman was one of the leaders of the scheme who recruited accountholders and directed both accountholders and higher-ranking members of the crew in the scheme’s operations, fronting the money for the scheme’s expenses and collecting a large share of its profits.   In addition, Zaman was primarily responsible for the crew’s fraudulent mortgage operations. 

Zaman was also ordered to three years of supervised release, and to pay restitution and forfeiture in the amount of $2,638,700, and a $300 special assessment.