South Orange man sentenced to 2 years in prison for fraud

NEWARK, NJ — Dashawn Duncan, 27, of South Orange, was sentenced to two years in prison for his role in conspiring to defraud two banks of $250,000 using stolen credit cards and blank checks, acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig announced July 28.

Duncan, along with co-conspirators Nasheed Jackson, 24, of Newark, and Alexander Varice, 22, of South Orange, previously pleaded guilty by video before U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton to informations charging each of them with one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud. Wigenton imposed Duncan’s sentence via video conference on July 28. Jackson was sentenced to two years in prison on July 22, and Varice is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 7.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court, from August 2018 through January 2020, Varice, Jackson and Duncan engaged in a fraudulent scheme to use stolen credit cards or checks to make purchases and withdraw money from two banks. The credit cards were stolen from facilities used by the U.S. Postal Service in Pine Brook and Warren, and never reached the intended cardholders. After obtaining the stolen cards, Varice, Jackson and Duncan used them to make unauthorized purchases at various retail stores and to withdraw cash from ATMs in New Jersey and elsewhere. The blank checks were also stolen from various New Jersey–based post office facilities and never reached their intended recipients. Varice and Jackson altered the date, payee and amount of the stolen checks prior to depositing into a third-party account, so that they could manually enter the amounts that they wanted to withdraw from a victim bank ATM.

In addition to the prison term, Wigenton sentenced Duncan to five years of supervised release.