Karan and Alyssa Geist Long Island mother and daughter busted in credit card fraud which netted $850,000 over the course of 13 years. Scam funded lavish lifestyle.
A study in how to steal from 14 different banks… without (eventually) getting caught.
A Long Island mother and daughter have been accused of racking up $850,000 in fraudulent credit card purchases over the course of 13 years, which prosecutors say were used to fund a lavish lifestyle.
Karan Geist, 61, and her daughter Alyssa Geist, 33, both pleaded not guilty to grand larceny, fraud and other charges in Manhattan Supreme Court Friday.
They are alleged to have used 14 different credit card companies defrauding banks during a 13 year scam, in which illicitly received funds were used to buy designer clothes and expensive vacations, according to the nypost.
‘This is a 13-year scheme that involved thousands of credit card transactions whereby Karan falsely reported — even though she incurred legitimate charges — as fraudulent,’ said Assistant District Attorney Catherine McCaw during the hearing.
‘Purchases ranged in nature from the luxurious to the mundane.’
Manhattan prosecutors accuse Karan Geist of falsely disputing $850,000 in charges from approximately 14 different credit card companies between 2008 and 2021.
They say she got credit placed on her statements when she would call banks and report phony charges.
On separate occasions, she got $205,000 put on an American Express card and $155,000 put on a Chase Card.
DA Albin Bragg’s office said the purchases ‘ranged in nature from the luxurious to the mundane.’
The Geist women would travel on the card to destinations as wide-ranging as Paris, Milan, London, Norway, Costa Rica and Hawaii.
Assistant District Attorney Catherine McCaw said in court: ‘She booked tickets in her own name, car rentals in her family member’s name, hotel stays in her own name, and other luxurious purchases like watches and handbags while she was traveling.’
As Bragg’s office called out, she wouldn’t just use the credit for extravagancies, she would use it at dollar stores or to pay simple bills for veterinary care, in addition to the occasional department store shopping spree.
#NYC #mother and daughter from #LongIsland scammed $850K in credit card con to fund lavish lifestyle: indictment https://t.co/REuwaofqbH via @nypmetro
— NY Paralegal (@ny_paralegal) August 29, 2022
Wasn’t anyone watching?
Prosecutors say that Karan Geist started alone but eventually got daughter Alyssa – a former schoolteacher in New York City – in on the hoax for about half a year.
They were once observed entering a Barclays to report a fraudulent charge on surveillance footage in 2016.
Alyssa graduated from St. Joseph’s University in 2011 with a major in secondary math education, where she was a member of the sorority Zeta Sigma Phi. In her sorority bio, she was asked what her favorite hobby was, she replied, ‘I have a shopping addiction/semi problem.’
The Geist heist was put to an end by a police raid in 2021 at her Huntington, Long Island home, where investigators discovered over 100 credit card and receipts for transactions reported as fraud.
Not immediately clear is how the two women were allegedly able to perpetuate the swindle ongoing before the financial institutions taking notice and never questioning the repeated claims of sizeable fraudulent charges.
The women were set free on supervised release after a Friday hearing and are scheduled to return to court September 14. Their passports were confiscated.
Alyssa’s attorney, James Pascarella, told the nypost: ‘My only comment [is] she is not guilty. She is completely innocent here and it will come out in the end.’
