NEWARK, N.J. – An Essex County, New Jersey, man was convicted today for his role in scheming with at least one U.S. Postal Service (USPS) employee and others to steal credit cards from the mail and then steal victims’ identities in order to use the stolen cards to make hundreds of thousands of dollars of retail and online purchases, Attorney for the United States Vikas Khanna announced.

Dashaun Brown, 28, of Newark, was convicted on four counts of the superseding indictment against him: conspiracy to commit bank fraud, bank fraud, receipt and possession of stolen mail, and aggravated identity theft in connection with bank fraud, following a week-long trial before U.S. District Judge Kevin McNulty in Newark federal court. Brown was acquitted on one count of bank fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

Dashaun Brown, Jahad Salter, 29, and Hakir Brown,28, engaged USPS employees, including Khadijah Banks-Oneal, 31, to steal credit cards from the mail in exchange for compensation. Once they obtained the stolen cards, Dashaun Brown and his conspirators posed as the accountholders of the stolen credit cards when calling the banks that issued the cards and used personal identifying information belonging to the accountholders to activate the cards and to obtain or change information about the stolen credit cards. They then used the stolen credit cards to make purchases at retail stores in New Jersey and elsewhere, resulting in attempted losses of over $1 million.

Attorney for the United States Khanna credited postal inspectors of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Newark, under the direction of Postal Inspector of Charge Damon Wood, Philadelphia Division; and special agents of the U.S. Postal Service, Office of Inspector General, Northeast Area Field Office, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Matthew Modafferi, with the investigation leading to today’s guilty verdict.