Sixteen people, including three bank employees and several students, have been indicted in a U.S. district court in a bank fraud and identity theft case that involved 37 banks and almost $300,000.
The two lead defendants — brothers Nelson Osemwengie, 24, and Kingsley Osemwengie, 20 — pleaded not guilty to the main charges of identity theft and bank fraud contained in an 81-count indictment. Among the other charges were the use of false driver's licenses and University of Nevada, Las Vegas ID cards to gain access to victims' bank accounts. A third alleged ringleader, Francisco Escamilla, also pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him a few days earlier. The most serious charge of bank fraud carries a sentence of up to 30 years in prison.
"This case illustrates the serious problems we are facing with identity theft and fraud in Nevada," Daniel Bogden, U.S. Attorney in Nevada, said in a statement.
The list of those indicted includes 11 men and five women. Three others have either surrendered to the authorities or have been arrested and have made initial appearances in court. The 10 others were being sought, the U.S. Attorney's office said.
The indictment alleges that from December 2004 to September 2005, bank employees Lisa Perry, 21, Muhammad Ali, 20, and Omar Richardson, 21, turned over to the Osemwengies and Escamilla information from 12 Bank of America accounts, eight Wells Fargo accounts, and five Nevada State accounts respectively. An employee at Bank One, where the details of 12 accounts were compromised, remained unidentified and unindicted, but was also involved with the conspiracy, the court document said.
"I'm just as sad as I could be that an employee violated the trust we placed in him and used customer information," said Bill Martin, chief executive of Nevada State Bank.
The members of the ring are accused of producing false documents to provide identification for themselves and others who cashed checks drawn on victims' accounts. Kingsley Osemwengie was accused of cashing two checks worth $11,500 in January 2005 at separate bank branches, according to the indictment. The indictment states that if Kingsley Osemwengie and the others are prosecuted, then property, including a Mercedes car and a Land Rover as well as a home in the outskirts of Las Vegas, will be forfeited to the value of $260,000.
In mid-2005 wide publicity was given to a similar case involving a criminal group of nine people, seven of whom were bank insiders. Four large American banks — Wachovia, Bank of America, Commerce Bancorp and PNC Bank — lost several million dollars, with the unscrupulous bank employees managing to sell confidential information belonging to over 500,000 clients. The authorities managed to detain all the accused in that case, although there is still no word of a final verdict from the court hearings.
“Financial companies are particularly vulnerable to internal threats. The latest case in Nevada has shown how just three insiders can cost a bank hundreds of thousands of dollars. Meanwhile, six months ago seven insiders cost some of the largest American banks several million dollars. This highlights the need for financial companies to approach the question of security for confidential information and protection from internal threats more seriously," Denis Zenkin, marketing director at InfoWatch, stressed.
Source: SignOnSanDiego
