Couple Linked to Fraud Network

This case gives the phrase “shop ‘til you drop” a new meaning.

Los Angeles police detectives arrested a Sherman Oaks couple this week after they allegedly bought thousands of dollars of electronics equipment, perfume, computers--even a case of cognac--using falsely obtained credit cards.

The couple, being held at Van Nuys Jail, are believed to be part of a network of Nigerians--based on the East Coast--who are fraudulently buying property and then reselling it for profit, police said. Frequently, they obtain credit cards on false premises, run up purchases to the maximum limit and then stop using the card, police said.

Acting on a tip, detectives from the LAPD’s bunco forgery unit in Van Nuys served search warrants Thursday, turning up numerous boxes of brand-new merchandise, as well as $84,000 in cash, diamonds and other jewels in a bank safe deposit box.

“They were running their own business--and successfully,” Det. Juan Baello said. “I even found a thank-you note for some computers in their apartment and wish lists from people with their names and sizes.”

The couple, Eyituoyo Commey and Philomena Ejededawe, used false names and Social Security numbers to obtain credit cards and instant credit, police said. Commey even used the identity of a South Carolina man who had died years ago, police said.

Commey also had driver’s licenses from Washington and Nevada, a U.S. passport issued under an assumed name, and false identification from three states, police said. He also has six or seven different bank accounts, including one in New York and one in London, according to police.

“This guy was well-connected,” Baello said. “He knew what he was doing.”

And what he was doing, Baello said, was shopping and then selling the hot items, including cellular phones, facsimile machines, jewelry, televisions, videocassette recorders, telephone answering machines and freezers.

Police searched Commey’s Sherman Oaks apartment in the 1500 block of Magnolia Boulevard, where most of the paperwork was found, authorities said. They then searched a storage unit near Pico and Crenshaw boulevards, where police said they uncovered the merchandise.

Commey was being held in lieu of $1.5-million bail and his wife, Ejededawe, was held in lieu of $500,000. Commey also is wanted by the Los Angeles Housing Authority for allegedly submitting false credit applications.

Charges against both will probably be filed Monday, police said.

Police said they still are investigating other crimes they believe may have been committed by Commey, including a possible false loan application made to the Federal Emergency Management Agency after the Northridge earthquake.

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Police say Commey made numerous wire transfers between banks, including an $8,500 transfer to a London bank. He had numerous receipts from plane trips to Arizona and New York and to other cities, detectives said.

Commey, according to detectives, was connected to a national network of Nigerians who fraudulently obtain credit cards and then spend to the limits before they can be traced by police.

“We’re seeing more and more Nigerian cases,” Baello said. “I think they’re branching out from back East.”

Baello said he believes Commey was selling the majority of the goods here, rather than shipping to Nigeria. But he said Commey probably did that too.

Said Baello: “He was definitely buying for people there, too.”