Hudson County Man Sentenced to 27 Months in Prison for Using Fake Passports to Obtain $450,000 in Fraudulent Bank Withdrawals

NEWARK, N.J. – A Hudson County, New Jersey, man was sentenced today 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.

Mamadou Diallo, 44, of Jersey City, New Jersey, 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 false 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 fraudulently obtain money from the victim banks. 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.

Acting U.S. Attorney Honig credited postal inspectors of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, under the direction of Acting Inspector in Charge Raimundo Marrero; special agents of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Jason J. Molina; the U.S. Department of Treasury-Office of Inspector General, under the direction of Inspector General Richard K. Delmar; and the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, under the direction of Acting Commissioner Amanda Hiller and Director of Internal Affairs Brian Hickey, with the investigation leading to today’s sentencing.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ari B. Fontecchio of the Special Prosecutions Division in Newark.