Alleged Identity Thieves Got IDs On Roosevelt Ave.

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown has announced that two alleged identity thieves — Syed Rehman, 39, of Sayreville, New Jersey, and a Bronx cabdriver, Ejaz Chaudhary, 41 — have been charged with attempting to obtain a $355,000 mortgage on a New Jersey property through the use of stolen and false identities. The defendants allegedly planned to “flip” the property and sell it very quickly for a $200,000 profit.
According to the charges, on the afternoon of March 6, the defendants appeared for a mortgage loan closing at 148-45 Hillside Avenue. A mortgage was scheduled to be signed by the defendants for a property located at 1606 79th Street in North Bergen, New Jersey. At the closing, Chaudhary identified himself as Azeem Sirajuddin and produced a New York State driver’s license and a permanent resident card, both bearing Chaudhary’s photo and the name and address of Azeem Sirajuddin. When confronted by police who were present, acting on tip, it is alleged that Chaudhary stated that he had obtained the documents on Roosevelt Avenue, that his true name was Ejaz Chaudhary and that he did not know Azeem Sirajuddin. Upon his arrest, Rehman was in possession of thirty different stolen IDs.
The defendants have been arraigned on charges of attempted grand larceny in the first degree, identity theft in the first and second degrees, criminal possession of a forged instrument in the second degree, unlawful possession of personal identification information in the third degree and criminal possession of stolen property in the fourth degree.
If convicted, they each face up to fourteen years in prison. Bail on each defendant has been set at $100,000.
Brown noted that his office recently announced the indictment of 21 other individuals with ties to a violent street gang based on Roosevelt Avenue on charges of operating a $1 million a year criminal enterprise that supplied fraudulent government identity documents —such as resident alien cards, driver’s licenses and Social Security cards — to individuals throughout the country. Roosevelt Avenue is considered to be the epicenter of such fraudulent activity on the East Coast.