Brendan R. Devera, 18 of Totowa, was also charged with promoting organized street crime and money laundering, Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew C. Carey and Rutgers University Police Chief Kenneth Cop said.
Devera graduated from Wayne Hills and started on the Rutgers Football Team as a freshman in 2017. His brother Tyler Devera, a recent Bergen Catholic graduate, committed to the Scarlett Knights in June.
The seven other students charged include Kai J. Gray, 21, of Union; Naijee R. Jones, 18, of Erial; Edwin A. Lopez, 19, of Camden; Kwabena Marfo, 21, of Alexandria, Virginia; Christian C. Onyechi, 19, of West Orange; Syhiem Simmons, 20, of Brooklyn, New York; and Malik Vaccaro-Dixon, 21, of Port Charlotte, Florida.
Between April 22 and May 3, the players participated in an illegal credit card fraud scheme in which they obtained credit card numbers belonging to others without their consent or authorization, and transferred funds to various RU (Rutgers’s University) Express Accounts for personal use.
Devera was scheduled for a court appearance Thursday in Superior Court.
The investigation is active and is continuing.
Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Sergeant Megan Moschberger of the Rutgers University Police Department at (732) 932-7111, or Detective Christopher Van Eerde of the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office at (732) 745-3300.
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