A Jersey City man was sentenced Monday to 27 months in prison for conspiring to use fake passports to open accounts at banks into which he and others deposited phony IRS refund checks, causing the banks to lose approximately $450,000, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig announced.
Federal officials said Mamadou Diallo, 44, of Jersey City, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Katharine S. Hayden in Newark federal court to an information charging him with one count of bank fraud conspiracy and one count of fraudulent use of a passport.
Judge Hayden imposed the sentence today in Newark federal court.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
From June 2012 through December 2018, Diallo and others conspired to obtain money from the victims' banks fraudulently.
They created false passports by affixing their own pictures onto passports bearing others’ names.
The conspirators opened fraudulent bank accounts at the banks using the doctored passports as photo identification.
Then they deposited fraudulent IRS refund checks and withdrew the funds from ATM and teller terminals.
The banks lost over $450,000.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Hayden sentenced Diallo to three years of supervised release, and ordered him to pay $150,052 in restitution.