A South Amboy gas station manager was charged today in connection with entering fraudulent charges on fuel credit cards assigned to at least four Amtrak vehicles, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig announced.
According to Federal officials, Mr. Umer Hassan Mir, 39, of South Amboy, is charged by complaint with knowingly and intentionally stealing and converting to his use approximately $9,600 in money of a department or agency of the United States.
Officials said Mir is also charged with making false statements to federal law enforcement.
He appeared by videoconference this afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Cathy L. Waldor and was released on $20,000.
According to the complaint:
From July 29, 2019, through August 3, 2021, while working as a manager and attendant at a Delta gas station in Metuchen, Mir caused numerous fraudulent fuel charges to be entered on fuel credit cards leased by the General Services Administration (GSA) and assigned to Amtrak vehicles.
Amtrak employees using GSA vehicles are instructed to purchase regular unleaded fuel and provide accurate odometer readings when they are fueling their assigned vehicles with their fuel credit cards.
The fraud was initially discovered when a GSA loss prevention technician discovered dozens of fuel credit card charges that exceeded the associated Amtrak vehicle’s fuel tank capacity, along with premium fuel transactions and non-sequential odometer entries.
Additional fuel credit cards assigned to Amtrak vehicles were discovered to have been compromised by fraudulent fuel charges at the Delta gas station.
The fraudulent charges were entered at the Delta gas station by Mir, who would manually enter information regarding fuel credit cards collected during legitimate fuel transactions electronically into the point-of-sale terminal.
Immediately following certain false fuel transactions, Mir withdrew cash in the amount of the fraudulent transaction from the gas station’s cash register.
Mir made false statements to law enforcement when questioned about his presence at the gas station during one of the recent fraudulent transactions.
The theft charge carries a maximum potential penalty of 10 years in prison, while the false statement charge carries a maximum possible penalty of five years. Each charge carries a maximum $250,000 fine.