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Federal agents arrested four women in the Denver area Friday, charging them with participating in an alleged organized bank-fraud ring that reportedly has included some 700 other participants. The ring allegedly defrauded several banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Washington Mutual Inc., Wells Fargo & Co., and Bank of America Corp., out of at least $80 million over the course of several months, according to court records related to the arrests. Some 700 individuals, mostly young immigrants from the former Soviet Union in the United States on student visas, served as straw purchasers for luxury goods and automobiles, according to court records filed in federal district court in Denver against two of the women. The young immigrants obtained credit cards, auto loans and other financing using "credit-piggybacking" methods, according to a court affidavit by an FBI special agent describing activities of 15 alleged members of the crime ring. Through credit-piggybacking, individuals with no or bad credit boost their credit scores when someone adds them to the accounts of individuals or businesses with long-established good credit. The straw purchasers allegedly used new credit cards or auto loans issued in their names to take out cash loans or to buy luxury goods and vehicles, but they did not intend to repay the loans, according to court records.
