BANK EMPLOYEE AND ANOTHER MAN CHARGED WITH POSSESSING STOLEN CREDIT CARDS WORTH $250,000

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced today the arrest of a Chase Manhattan Bank employee on charges of possessing 15 pre-approved credit cards worth as much as $250,000 that had been stolen from the credit card distribution center where the defendant worked as a machine operator. A second man was also arrested.

District Attorney Brown said that the defendants were taken into custody yesterday in Ozone Park, Queens after an undercover sting operation conducted jointly by his office's Economic Crimes Bureau, the US Postal Inspections Service and the U.S. Secret Service.

District Attorney Brown identified the defendants as Pantanjlee Arjoon, 25, of 107-34 117th Street, Richmond Hill, an employee at the bank's credit card distribution center in New Hyde Park, N.Y. and Vishnu Samaroo, 30, of 107-30 108th Street, Ozone Park. They are both charged with 15 counts of criminal possession of stolen property and face up to four years in prison if convicted of these charges. The defendant Arjoon is also charged with possession of forged instruments, an allegedly forged New Jersey drivers license, and faces up to 7 years on that charge.

The District Attorney said "The investigation began one month ago when undercover detectives learned that new credit cards with pre-approved lines of credit ranging from $5,000-$25,0000 were being sold on the streets of Ozone Park and Richmond Hill. The investigation revealed that the cards originated from batches of cards pre-sorted and distributed from a Chase facility at 12 Nevada Road in New Hyde Park, Long Island. The undercover detectives let it be known that they wanted to purchase 15 cards for $5,000 and arranged to meet the sellers on the street yesterday afternoon. When they arrived at the pre-arranged location, in front of the defendant Samaroo's home in Ozone Park, the defendants were placed under arrest. A search of the premises was executed and 40 additional cards worth as much as $400,000 were recovered."

The investigation was carried out by Lt. Al Velardi and Det. Glen McKechnie of District Attorney Brown's Detective Bureau which is under the Supervision of Chief Edward J. Brady; NYPD Det. Dwight Cunningham and Special Agent Greg McAleer of the U.S. Secret Service under the supervision of Special Agent in Charge Chip Smith and NYPD Deputy Inspector Robert Martin, Commanding Officer of the Special Investigation Division and Postal Inspector Michael Pena of the U.S. Postal Inspections Service under Supervising Inspector Leonard Kennedy.

Assistant District Attorney Dianne Peress of the District Attorney's Economic Crimes Bureau, which is under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Michael Mansfield and the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney Robert Alexander is in charge of the case.

District Attorney Brown thanked officials of Chase Manhattan Bank for their cooperation and assistance in the investigation.

It should be noted that an arrest is merely an allegation and that a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty.