Acting Erie County District Attorney Michael J. Flaherty, Jr. announces the arraignment of 25- year-old Kelsey Dapaah of Yonkers before State Supreme Court Justice M. William Boller on an indictment charging him with five counts of Criminal Possession of a Forged Instrument in the Second Degree and one count of Criminal Possession of a Forgery Device.

The charges arise from a year-long investigation by the Erie County Sheriff's Office and New York State Police into a series of unauthorized charges on victims’ credit cards.  

Dapaah, along with two co-defendants, 23-year-old Mohamed Kaba and 23-year-old Nkemjika Ogbuagu, are accused of manufacturing dozens of forged credit cards and debit cards with stolen personal identifying information and using them for local and online purchases.

Defendant Dapaah is a student at Buffalo State College and from Yonkers, New York, as are his co-defendants Kaba and Ogbuagu.  

Kaba also is currently indicted on an Assault in the Second Degree charge relating to an incident that occurred at Buffalo State College in September 2015.  Kaba is accused of slashing another Buffalo State student with a razor.

Dapaah will be back before Justice Boller on April 22, 2016 at 9:30 a.m. for a pre-trial conference.

Acting DA Flaherty commends the investigative work of Detective Daniel Brinkerhoff of the Erie County Sheriff’s Office. 

Paul E. Bonanno, Chief of the Special Investigations and Prosecutions Bureau and Assistant District Attorney Brian P. Dassero are prosecuting the case.

As are all persons accused of a crime, the defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.