NEW YORK - The United States Secret Service, New York Field Office, announced the unsealing of superseding information from a prior indictment charging SAMUEL SELMAR for his role in running an advance-fee loan fraud scheme through which dozens upon dozens of victims were defrauded of almost $1 million. SELMAR surrendered and was presented before U.S. District Magistrate Judge Jennifer Willis.
Special Agent in Charge Patrick J. Freaney said: “The deliberate chicanery allegedly carried out by this defendant has had a dire impact on the lives of his victims. By-and-large, these are private citizens who cannot afford to lose a few thousand dollars each. I want to commend the dedication of our Secret Service investigators and the prosecutors at the Southern District of New York for disrupting this insidious operation, and building a strong case that goes a long way toward delivering accountability.”
According to the superseding information, public court filings, and statements made in court*:
From at least in or about March 2021 through at least in or about December 2021, in the Southern District of New York and elsewhere, SAMUEL SELMAR, the defendant, and others known and unknown are alleged to have willfully and knowingly combined, conspired, confederated, and agreed together and with each other to operate a fraudulent scheme through purported fraudulent lending companies (collectively, the “Fraudulent Lenders.”) During the course of the scheme, SELMAR and others, through their control of Fraudulent Lenders, induced victims to provide their bank account information in order to make payments related to loans that the Fraudulent Lenders promised to issue to the victims. Instead, however, SELMAR and others defrauded the victims by withdrawing thousands of dollars from each of the victims’ bank accounts without issuing the promised loans in full.
It was a part and an object of the conspiracy that SAMUEL SELMAR, the defendant, and others known and unknown, knowingly having devised and intending to devise a scheme and artifice to defraud, and for obtaining money and property by means of false and fraudulent pretenses, representations, and promises, would and did transmit and cause to be transmitted by means of wire, radio, and television communication in interstate and foreign commerce, writings, signs, signals, pictures, and sounds for the purpose of executing such scheme and artifice, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1343, to wit, SELMAR and others agreed to operate an advance-fee merchant cash advance fraud scheme through which they agreed to defraud victims, and sent and received, and caused others to send and receive, emails and other electronic communications, to and from the Southern District of New York.
SELMAR, 46, of Cedarhurst, New York is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
The maximum potential penalty is prescribed by Congress and any sentencing of the defendants will be determined by the judge.
This case is being handled by the Office’s General Crimes Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys James Mandilk and Alexandra S. Messiter are in charge of the prosecution.
The charges contained herein are merely accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Additional Information:
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/two-defendants-charged-orchestrating-2-million-loan-fraud-scheme
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/media/1347216/dl
*As the introductory phrase signifies, the entirety of the text set forth herein constitutes only allegations, and every fact described should be treated as an allegation.