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Englewood police hunt ringleaders of major bank fraud ring

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: Englewood detectives are headed up the chain of an organized fraud ring after arresting a woman who they said tried to obtain a home equity loan after opening a bank account in someone else’s name.

Photo Credit: Courtesy ENGLEWOOD PD

Using the stolen identity, 29-year-old Tazsheena Reid applied for the loan and then arrived Friday at the Wells Fargo branch on West Palisade Avenue to pick up her $25,000 check, Detective Capt. Timothy Torell said.

Bank employees called police and stalled her until officers arrived, Torell said.

The officers found her carrying a counterfeit New York State driver’s license, among other evidence, he said.

Reid, who has addresses in Hackensack, the Bronx and Bushkill, Pa., was being held on $45,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail,

This comes after Fort Lee police nabbed a Bronx man who they said was thwarted by employees when he used a phony identity to try and obtain an account at the Wells Fargo branch on Lemoine Avenue last week (SEE: Fort Lee police chase down suspect after bank fraud).

“In general, this type of arrest almost always leads to others higher in the food chain, no matter how good the ringleaders think they have things planned out,” Torell said.

“Organized crews that are very transient usually recruit young males and females that have little or no prior arrest record,” he said. “If they get grabbed by the police, the message of the ringleaders is for the arrestees to ‘take the weight, don’t snitch and you’ll be rewarded.’

“But these young people are sold all sorts of pipe dreams,” the captain said. “Even if they are successful in getting a lighter sentence, they never get what’s promised to them by the ringleaders and end up having to make restitution to the financial institutions that can take years and years to pay back — not to mention the problems one faces in life with a felony conviction in their background.

“We plan on going up the food chain in this case very aggressively,” he said.

MUGSHOT: Courtesy ENGLEWOOD PD

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