Investigations

On October 10, 2019, Lamont Brown pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court, Brooklyn, New York, to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. According to the investigation, from about April 2016 through July 2018, Brown, who lives in Brooklyn, and other individuals engaged in a scheme to defraud Amtrak by using stolen credit card account numbers obtained from the “dark web” to purchase trip reservations through Amtrak’s ticketing system. Then they canceled the reservations and were issued Amtrak eVouchers, which they sold at a discount online. Amtrak eventually refunded approximately $450,000 to the people whose stolen credit cards were used in the scheme. Grants from the Federal Railroad Administration helped pay for the upgrade of Amtrak’s computer ticketing system, which includes eVouchers.

 

DOT-OIG is conducting this investigation with DHS-HSI and Amtrak-OIG.