Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
District of New Jersey
Thursday, August 5, 2021
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Gas Station Manager Arrested and Charged with Billing Fraudulent Fuel Charges on Amtrak Vehicles
NEWARK, N.J. – A New Jersey gas station manager was charged today in connection with entering fraudulent charges on fuel credit cards assigned to at least four Amtrak vehicles, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig announced.
Umer Hassan Mir, 39, of South Amboy, is charged by complaint with knowingly and intentionally stealing and converting to his own use approximately $9,600 in money of a department or agency of the United States. He is also charged with making false statements to federal law enforcement. Mir appeared by videoconference this afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Cathy L. Waldor and was released on $20,000.
According to the complaint:
From July 29, 2019, through Aug. 3, 2021, while working as a manager and attendant at a Delta gas station, in Metuchen, New Jersey, Mir caused numerous fraudulent fuel charges to be entered on fuel credit cards leased by the General Services Administration (GSA) and assigned to Amtrak vehicles. Amtrak employees using GSA vehicles are instructed to purchase regular unleaded fuel and provide accurate odometer readings when they are fueling their assigned vehicles with their fuel credit cards. The fraud was initially discovered when a GSA loss prevention technician discovered dozens of fuel credit card charges that exceeded the associated Amtrak vehicle’s fuel tank capacity, along with premium fuel transactions, and non-sequential odometer entries. Additional fuel credit cards assigned to Amtrak vehicles were discovered to have been compromised by fraudulent fuel charges at the Delta gas station.
The fraudulent charges were entered at the Delta gas station by Mir, who would manually enter information regarding fuel credit cards collected during legitimate fuel transactions electronically into the point-of-sale terminal. Immediately following certain false fuel transactions, Mir withdrew cash in the amount of the fraudulent transaction from the gas station’s cash register.
Mir made false statements to law enforcement when questioned about his presence at the gas station during one of the recent fraudulent transactions.
The theft charge carries a maximum potential penalty of 10 years in prison while the false statement charge carries a maximum potential penalty of five years. Each charge carries a maximum $250,000 fine.
Acting U.S. Attorney Honig credited special agents of the Amtrak, Office of Inspector General, Eastern Region, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Michael J. Waters; the General Services Administration, Office of Inspector General, Northeast Field Investigations Division, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Joseph Dattoria; and inspectors with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Newark Division, under the direction of Acting Inspector in Charge Rodney M. Hopkins, with the investigation leading to the charges. She also thanked the Metuchen Police Department, under the direction of Chief of Police David Irizarry, for its assistance.
The government is represented by Senior Trial Counsel Leslie Faye Schwartz, of the U.S. Attorneys’ Special Prosecutions Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Cari Fais, Chief of the Opioid Abuse Prevention and Enforcement Unit.
The charges and allegations contained in the complaint are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice press release.
