INDICTMENT FILED ON COUPLE FOR $54,000 IN CREDIT CARD FRAUD CHARGES USED TO PURCHASE 300 CARTONS OF CIGARETTES

Posted on 2/4/2016

Defendant: Thierno Mamadou Barry and Fatu Bangura

Prosecutor Ron O’Brien announced today that the Franklin County Grand Jury has returned an indictment against Thierno Mamadou Barry AKA Ahmed Barry AKA Kevin Gonzalez, age 35, and Fatu Bangura, age 27, for counts including Tampering with Records, Forgery, Identity Fraud, Misuse of Credit Cards, Receiving Stolen Property, and Money Laundering.  On July 27, 2015, Barry presented a fake driver’s license to police investigating an incident where he assaulted Bangura.  During the arrest, Barry dropped several gift cards and money orders, and had over $7000 in cash on his person.  Due to the fake license, the matter was referred to the Columbus Police Department Forgery section.  It is alleged that the gift cards were purchased with a stolen credit card that had over $54,000 in fraud charges on it, which occurred between July 15 and July 27, 2015.  It is further alleged that Barry and Bangura would use the gift cards purchased with the stolen credit card to purchase cigarettes.  Over 300 cartons of cigarettes were recovered from a U Haul storage unit that Barry had rented in a fake name (Kevin Gonzalez – the same name on the fake license), “There were four ID fraud victims and one forgery victim”, O’Brien stated.  “Giant Eagle, Meijer, Family Dollar, Shell, Sunoco, Capital One, and AMEX were all affected by the fraud transactions”, O’Brien further stated.