Local News in Brief : Van Nuys Man Charged in Credit-Card Fraud

A Van Nuys man has been indicted by a federal grand jury in New Jersey on three felony charges involving a $280,000 credit-card fraud, according to a spokeswoman at a U.S. attorney’s office in New Jersey.

Larry Grundfeld, 39, also known as Larry Greenfield, was arrested Sept. 19 after the U.S. attorney filed a complaint against him and another man, Bernard D’Andrea, 46, of Toms River, N.J., said Assistant U.S. Atty. Gail Nichols. Grundfeld was released on $25,000 bail and D’Andrea was released on his personal recognizance.

The two were charged with one count each of conspiracy to use unauthorized credit-card numbers, actual unauthorized use of the card numbers and bank fraud, Nichols said. The grand jury indictment was handed down Thursday.

According to Nichols, the indictment alleges two different operations. In one, Grundfeld allegedly traveled to New Jersey last April or May with 2,400 typewritten credit-card drafts and gave the drafts to D’Andrea, who deposited them in the New Jersey National Bank, Nichols said. She said that D’Andrea collected $150,000 from the bank as payment for the drafts and sent $74,000 to Grundfeld.

In the other alleged operation, in July and August, a total of $130,000 was collected.

None of the drafts had signatures or were authorized by the card holders, but they were cashed nonetheless because “they were purported to be for telephone or mail sales,” U.S. Atty. Thomas Greelish said in news reports.

Federal investigators began looking into the case when credit-card holders complained in large numbers that they were being billed for items they did not buy, Nichols said. She said it is unknown how the bank drafts or the card numbers were obtained.