By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — An alleged scam artist used stolen FedEx account numbers to make $80,000 on shipments he was pretending to send at a discount rate, prosecutors said.
Amadou Fall, 45, who allegedy operated out of an office in Midtown, pleaded not guilty to identity theft and grand larceny at his arraignment in Manhattan Supreme Court Wednesday.
The Senegal native, whose status in this country was unknown when he appeared in court, collected money for the shipments between September 2008 and November 2010, prosecutors said.
He then allegedly used account numbers stolen from businesses throughout the city to make more than 60 shipments on behalf of West African New Yorkers to points in the U.S. and the victims' native countries and pocketed the cash. Prosecutors would not say how the account numbers were obtained.
Fall sent shipments costing over $3,000 to Mali and Senegal but each of the packages were flagged by FedEx before reaching their destinations, prosecutors said.
FedEx had to foot the bill for the shipping costs and his duped customers lost the goods that were sent as well as the money they paid him, the DA said.
"This case not only affected FedEx, it also harmed many shippers and receivers who had their packages intercepted by authorities before reaching their destination," Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance Jr. said in a statement.
Fall's attorney, Robert Georges, declined to comment.
