Karan and Alyssa Geist: Luxury vacays and Chanel buys, how mother-daughter duo stole $850K over THIRTEEN years
MANHATTAN, NEW YORK CITY: Karan Geist, 61, and her daughter Alyssa Geist, 33, have been indicted over a thirteen-year-long credit card fraud. The duo allegedly defrauded banks out of hundreds of thousands of dollars for designer clothes and lavish vacations. On Friday, August 26, 2022, Karan and her daughter Alyssa appeared in Manhattan Supreme Court and pleaded not guilty to a number of charges, including felony theft and fraud.
“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. Prosecutors claim Karan falsely refuted $850,000 in credit card charges from 14 different companies between 2008 and 2021. “These purchases ranged in nature from the luxurious to the mundane,” according to District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office, The New York Post reported.
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“On numerous occasions, Karan booked travel both for foreign and domestic to exotic destinations including Paris, Milan, Norway, Costa Rica, Hawaii, and a number of other places,” the ADA told Justice Laura Ward in court. Alyssa allegedly got the credit on her statements after reporting false fraudulent charges, including $205,000 on her American Express cards and $155,000 from Chase, by calling banks and writing letters to employees, The Post reported.
“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,” McCaw said. She reportedly disputed menial life expenses like Dollar Store purchases and even a veterinary bill for her dogs Louis and Daisy, as well as shopping sprees at Bloomingdale's and Bergdorf Goodman.
Prosecutors claim that Karan, who was fired from her middle school job in November 2016, according to Board of Education records, later recruited her daughter to join the family business. They claimed Alyssa, a former New York City teacher, was involved in the scheme for about six months. Prosecutors claimed that in 2016, Barclays Bank obtained surveillance footage of Karan and Alyssa making a transaction at a Chanel store, which the two later reported as a fraudulent charge.
In July 2017, Alyssa reportedly used one of her mother's credit cards to make a $1,400 purchase. Prosecutors said she disputed the charge to get a refund after following Karan's specific instructions. Prosecutors claim that while visiting Montreal with friends in August 2017, Alyssa texted her mother about how to falsely dispute charges as fraudulent.
According to the DA's Office, police raided Karan's home about a year ago and discovered more than 100 credit cards tied to multiple purchases, including a refrigerator and sunglasses, as well as receipts related to transactions that were later reported as fraudulent. Following their hearing on Friday, August 26, the accused con artists were released on supervised probation, and their passports were confiscated. Alyssa was in tears as she left the court. Both mother and daughter are due back in court on September 14, 2022.