Staten Island-based identity theft ring stole $5M, authorities say

View full sizeThe three main suspects in a Staten Island-based identity theft ring are, from left, Kazeem Badru of Stapleton; Ganiu Rilwan of Clifton; and Okoronkwo Okechukwu of Graniteville.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- They dubbed their identity-theft ring “BRO,” but officials said there was nothing familial about how a Staten Island-based gang allegedly stole up to $5 million from borough residents and others, including soldiers based at Fort Hood, Texas, who were deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq while they were being ripped off.
“It takes a certain type of detached cruelty to victimize people in this way,” Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said at One Police Plaza today, where he was joined by District Attorney Daniel Donovan and other law enforcement officials to announce the takedown and indictment of almost three dozen members of the crew.
A total of 60 people, including more than a dozen from the Island and 20 Fort Hood soldiers, were victimized by the enterprising gang. Other victims lived in Manhattan, Westchester, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Greensboro, N.C.
Dozens of detectives yesterday raided homes here and in Queens and Brooklyn and arrested a total of 33 people, including nine Islanders.
Included were the three of the gang’s alleged ringleaders: Kazeem Badru, of the 200 block Osgood Ave., Stapleton; Ganiu Rilwan, of the 200 block of Park Hill Avenue, Clifton, and Okoronkwo Okechukwu, of Parkview Loop, Bulls Head.
The moniker BRO is an abbreviation based on the first letters of their last names.
The other Island arrestees were Chukunenye Okpo, of Dehart Avenue, Mariners Harbor; Ishameel Lawandi, of the 200 block of Park Hill Avenue, Clifton; Kanayo Unokiwe, of Trantor Place, Elm Park; Kolawole Adeolike, of Arlington Avenue, Mariners Harbor; Corey Mills of the 200 block of Park Hill Avenue, Clifton, and Kelechi Ekwegh of Maple Parkway, Mariners Harbor.
Of the 18 main players in the scheme, 16 face a top count of enterprise corruption, a Class B felony punishable by up to 25 years in prison. They were arraigned in state Supreme Court, St. George. Three more of the top players remain at large.
Other defendants face lesser charges. Many of the defendants hail from Lagos, Nigeria, said Donovan.
Kelly said that the case began with a tip called into to police headquarters from a Libby, Montana woman who said that someone on the Island was writing checks from her home-equity account.
That call kicked off a two-year investigation, dubbed “Operation Hydra,” conducted by the NYPD’s Special Investigations Division, Donovan’s office and federal agencies, including the Fort Hood Criminal Investigation Division.
It revealed how the gang allegedly used pilfered mail and other undisclosed methods to steal identities and establish fraudulent checking accounts, credit and debit cards and lines of home-equity credit.
“Every step of the investigation led to another piece of the criminal operation,” Donovan said.
Ring underlings laundered fake checks or acted as mail drops for fraudulent accounts, and got a percentage of the amount they stole.
According to Donovan, a handful of Island banks reported “significant losses” from the deposit of fraudulent checks. They were among the 27 banks here and elsewhere that were plundered by the schemers.
Kelly said a Fort Hood soldier came home last Christmas to find his bank account drained. Donovan said that the Fort Hood soldiers were victimized shortly before the mass shooting incident there, but that no soldier was involved in both cases.
While the gang made more than 2,500 attempts to get information about the Fort Hood soldiers, Donovan said investigators were able to limit the soldiers’ losses to around $15,000.
Donovan’s office said that one of the defendants, Bronx resident Kevin Marshall, formerly served in the Army at Fort Hood and through an accomplice there was able to get the soldiers’ sensitive information.
Officials said the gang was able to stay under the radar because they did not flaunt their ill-gotten gains.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney David Frey of Donovan’s office.