Orange man sentenced to 3 years for bank fraud, ID theft

NEWARK, NJ — An Orange resident was sentenced Feb. 11 to three years in prison for his role in a scheme to use credit cards stolen by mail carriers from the mail, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced.

Elhadj Fofana, 23, of Orange, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Kathryn Hayden to an information charging him with bank fraud and aggravated identity theft.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court, from July 2017 to February 2018, Fofana and others used credit cards that were stolen by mail carriers to make unauthorized purchases of retail goods, such as Apple MacBook Pro devices and other Apple products, throughout New Jersey and New York, causing financial losses to the banks that issued the credit cards. Olagoke Araromi and Moussa Dagno, who bribed the mail carriers to steal the credit cards from the mail that were used for the scheme, were sentenced in October to prison terms for their roles in the scheme.

In addition to the prison term, Hayden sentenced Fofana to three years of supervised release and ordered him to pay restitution in the amount of $114,680.

  Fraud, Sentencing, U.S. Attorney’s Office