The federal government is accusing a bank employee of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from a dozen customers.
The Justice Department says in July and August of 2024, Damani Brown allegedly used his credentials to access the accounts of 12 customers and then drained a total of $477,000 from those accounts.
The employee allegedly worked with a co-conspirator.
“Brown was able to see whether the victim customers had ever registered their online accounts, their bank member number and social security number. Shortly after Brown performed a lookup, a co-conspirator registered the victim customer’s online account.”
After being drained from the dozen customer accounts, the funds were moved to third-party accounts, according to the Justice Department. Approximately $327,000 was transferred via CashApp or withdrawn from local bank branches. Some of the victims reported about their missing money to the bank within a few days of noticing the unauthorized transactions.
In January, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) obtained a warrant to search the email accounts used to administer the bank accounts.
“Investigators recovered verification emails sent from the bank containing one-time password codes and notification emails sent from the bank with updates regarding the online accounts, including email updates, password resets, and account freezes.”
Brown, who no longer works at the bank, is now facing charges of “aggravated identity theft, access device fraud and conspiracy to commit access device fraud, computer fraud and conspiracy to commit computer fraud, and bank fraud and conspiracy to commit bank fraud” filed by the United States Attorney for the Western District of New York. He faces a maximum of 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine if convicted.
