Man charged in $73,000 theft

A man wanted on a federal warrant for drug trafficking was arrested Thursday after a Douglas County contractor discovered $73,000 was missing from his checking account.

Kuldip Singh Johal, 24, was being held without bail in the Carson City Jail on suspicion of felony obtaining money under false pretenses, forgery of a credit card, and a U.S. marshal warrant for probation violation.

On Monday, the victim went to police to report he had only $3 in his checking account at Irwin Bank, said Carson City Sheriff's Detective Bob Motamenpour.

Motamenpour said the victim brought bank account statements showing debit and credit charges totaling $73,000, said Motamenpour.

At least 17 Carson City businesses charged the credit card, including two motels.

When Motamenpour investigated, he discovered payments were made with the victim's account number but in Johal's name.

"I think he actually obtained the credit card number from when he worked at a gas station a couple weeks ago," he said. "Then he passed the number to two buddies in the Bay area who produced the card with his name on it."

Motamenpour said Johal was arrested in the 1700 block of North Carson Street at 10:44 a.m. When Johal's name was run through the national crime-information computer, a 3-year-old warrant for federal probation violation on a trafficking charge out of California showed up, Motamenpour said.

The detective said there may be other victims.

"He could have obtained a lot of credit card numbers," Motamenpour said.

Contact F.T. Norton at ftnorton@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1213.