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Duquesne credit card scam easy to solve
Wednesday, June 09, 1999 By Bill Heltzel, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
A scheme that defrauded PNC Bank of nearly $36,000 seemed pretty slick on the surface, but ultimately it was an easily solved crime.
Nine Duquesne University students -- three of them varsity basketball players -- and a 10th man were accused last week of using debit cards and unused personal checks to siphon money from bank accounts. But their method was a poor choice in Pittsburgh for a couple of reasons: The transactions leave a trail, and Pittsburgh has a diverse group of financial fraud investigators that share information.
"Once we got rolling," said U.S. Postal Inspector John Wisniewski, "it wasn't that difficult."
The U.S. Postal Service is just one of several federal, state and local agencies that are represented on the Pittsburgh Financial Crimes Task Force. Many also belong to the local chapter of the International Association of Financial Crime Investigators, which includes non-governmental investigators and meets every month or so to discuss cases and suspicious activities. By sharing information, they can see larger patterns and devise multi-jurisdictional strategies for catching suspects.
That's what happened in the Duquesne case.
PNC Bank investigators noticed that students were reporting stolen bank debit cards and checks. Worthless checks from some student accounts were deposited into other student accounts. Before the bank could discover that deposits in the second account were backed up by insufficient funds from the first account, money was withdrawn at ATMs.
"When you see six, seven, eight incidents, and they're all Duquesne University students and around the same period of time, it just doesn't add up," Wisniewski said.
The task force mobilized agents and investigators from the post office, Secret Service, Federal Bureau of Investigation, district attorney's office, county police department, Pittsburgh police and Duquesne University police.
Last month, a federal grand jury indicted Simon Ogunlesi, 22, Robert Unoarumhi, 20, Jamal Hunter, 20, Devone Stephenson, 20, Maritza Harvin, 19, Casey Cook, 19, Derek Garrambone, 20, Onyekachi Emeagi, 23, Kenneth Rivera, 18, and Brooke Jordan, 19. All but one are Duquesne students. Unoarumhi, from Philadelphia, is not a student here.
Last week, agents began arresting the suspects.
The indictment says Unoarumhi, Ogunlesi and Hunter bought debit cards and blank checks from the other students, paying from $400 to $2,000, and then used them to make fraudulent ATM withdrawals or buy money orders.
"A few naive kids just got caught up in what they thought would be easy money, and they were told they wouldn't get caught," Wisniewski said. "It could have happened at Pitt or CMU. Duquesne just happened to be the location."
Ogunlesi, a 6-foot, 10-inch center who transferred from Villanova, and Hunter, a 6-foot, 5-inch guard who transferred from Loyola of Maryland, were expected to have key roles in Duquesne's attempt to improve the basketball program after last year's 5-23 showing.
Stephenson, a reserve player on the team, was entering his senior year.
Duquesne said last week that it had suspended Ogunlesi and Hunter from the team and university pending the outcome of the case. It said additional disciplinary action was possible against the other accused students after their arraignment on June 15.
Yesterday, Hunter turned himself in to authorities in Hartford, Conn., said Mary Beth Buchanan, assistant U.S. attorney. He made an initial appearance there before U.S. Magistrate Thomas P. Smith, who ordered Hunter to appear for arraignment in Pittsburgh. A date for the arraignment has not yet been set. Hunter was released on a $10,000 recognizance bond.
Buchanan said the investigation into the scheme is continuing.
The scheme is known as a "split deposit" scam, in which bogus checks are used to inflate an account balance and then money is withdrawn quickly before bank authorities notice the pattern.
The scam depends on the "float," a period of one to three days in which deposits are posted against an account before the bank can verify the funds are legitimate. By the time phony deposits are detected, money has been siphoned out of the account.
The nature of the game is speed. If the thief goes back for more on the third or fourth day after the deposit, he risks getting caught in the act.
The task force and bank investigators alert one another with faxes when they have a hot tip. They've caught suspects in banks and trying to catch flights at the airport.
"On the surface, it looks like a sophisticated scheme," Wisniewski said. "But it's highly solvable."
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