Scoundrels Swipe $794k from Elderly Chaps!

It appears that a pair of bounders, namely Ayman Alaaraj and Ahmad Nassar, brothers-in-law and partners in crime, have got themselves into a bit of a pickle. The U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of California, has unsealed a 17-count indictment, charging the scoundrels with bank fraud and aggravated identity theft ๐Ÿš”.

It’s alleged that in May 2023, Nassar, the apparent mastermind, managed to get his grubby hands on several bank accounts belonging to two elderly chaps at two separate banks. He accomplished this dastardly feat using some quite sophisticated techniques, including porting over the phone number of one of the victims ๐Ÿ“ฑ. Oh, the cunning blighter!

This clever ruse allowed Nassar, occasionally assisted by his trusty sidekick Alaaraj, to access the accounts and bypass the banks’ two-factor authentication protection ๐Ÿ”“. They then proceeded to drain the accounts and run up unpaid credit card debits, causing a whopping $794,000 in losses to the poor victims ๐Ÿ˜ฑ.

The dynamic duo then laundered the stolen loot through pass-through accounts created under the victims’ names, as well as funneled a tidy $100,000 through Alaaraj’s businesses ๐Ÿ“ˆ. One wonders what sort of ‘businesses’ these might be… ๐Ÿค”

The defendants eventually transferred the ill-gotten gains to themselves using ATM cash withdrawals, personal checks, Western Union transactions, and Zelle transactions ๐Ÿ“Š. They also used the stolen funds to pay credit cards, engage in online gambling, and buy a Mercedes ๐Ÿš—. Oh, the high life!

If found guilty, the two scoundrels face up to 30 years of cooling their heels in the slammer and a $1 million fine for each count of bank fraud ๐Ÿš”. They also face a mandatory prison term of two years and a fine of up to $250,000, or twice the gross gain or gross loss, for the aggravated identity theft count ๐Ÿคฏ. One hopes they’ll have plenty of time to reflect on their misdeeds… ๐Ÿ™

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2025-06-20 03:26