Newark, NJ man conspired with USPS workers to steal credit cards from the mail

He was just one of the perpetrators, but a Newark man has admitted to his role in stealing credit cards from the mail and then using them to make retail and online purchases totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Vikas Khanna announced on Friday.

For his role, Hakir Brown, 27, Newark, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud.

All together though, Brown, Jahad Salter, 25, and Dashaun Brown, 31, solicited the involvement of USPS employees, including Khadijah Banks Oneal, 31, to steal credit cards from the mail and then get paid.

Brown and the others would then fraudulently pose as the actual account holders when they called the banks who issued the cards.

They also used personal identifying information of the accountholders in order to obtain or change information about the stolen credit cards as they wished.

Brown and the rest of the conspirators used the stolen credit cards at retail stores in New Jersey, New York and elsewhere in-person as well as online, and ran up bills that collectively totaled over $300,000.

Banks Oneal, who worked at a mail processing plant facility in Kearny, Ashley Taylor, who worked at a post office in New York, Salter, Adeeb Salih, 29, of East Orange, and Yaseen Salih, 24, of Iselin were also charged by complaint for their roles in the scheme.

Dashaun Brown was indicted by a grand jury and he'll be arraigned in March.

Prosecutor Khanna said that the charge of conspiracy to commit bank fraud carries a statutory maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and a maximum fine of $1 million.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara F. Merin of the Special Prosecutions Division in Newark.

Defense counsel: Mark A. Bailey Esq., Newark.