Embezzling Jacksonville banker sentenced to 5 years

Embezzling Jacksonville banker Christopher David Boston was sentenced to five years in prison Tuesday afternoon for embezzling at least $10.5 million from his job at Fifth Third Bank over a four-year period.

Boston, 40, pleaded guilty in March to bank fraud. He also must pay $2 million in restitution to the bank after he's released. He faced up to 30 years in prison and a $4.4 million fine.

Boston's sentencing was delayed last month after Senior U.S. District Judge Henry Lee Adams Jr. recused himself for an undisclosed reason. District Judge Brian Davis will handle the sentencing.

Boston had been free on bond and was recently allowed by a judge to travel to Ohio to help his parents with home repair issues before returning to Jacksonville for sentencing, court records show.

Boston operated a bank-fraud scheme that included stealing at least $10.5 million from one corporate account and transferring money from two individual accounts to cover the original thefts. The embezzlement occurred over 3 1/2 years ending in April 2013 at the Fifth Third Bank off San Jose Boulevard in north Mandarin.

A victim of the scheme whose husband lost and then got back nearly $6 million told the Times-Union that Boston’s actions devastated her family and refuted any notion of him being considered a Robin Hood-like character for helping his customers.

Court records show Boston used $210,000 to make $2,000 monthly mortgage payments on his family’s Mandarin home, install a backyard pool and for other expenses. The home on Emilys Crossing Court was turned over to Boston’s wife in a divorce last year, and Boston said he’s now living in another Mandarin home in the 11500 block of Summer Brook Court.

Prosecutors said Boston used the rest of the embezzled money to help his customers, and ultimately his own standing in the bank, with favors such as paying off troubled loans and making “off-book” loans to those whose applications had been denied.

The bank replenished the embezzled accounts and had arranged new loans with Boston’s customers, recovering all but about $2 million, which is federally insured, court records show.

Boston, never arrested, was asked to sign a $20,000 signature bond. Prosecutors didn’t seek detention since they considered him neither a threat to the community nor, with a 2-year-old son, a flight risk.

Second woman arrested in bank fraud scheme in Florida

A second woman was arrested for her suspected involvement in a multiperson scheme to defraud a woman of more than $80,000 from her TD Bank account.

Island Dort, 28, was arrested Thursday for taking part in a scheme that started in fall 2011 where she and her friends would withdraw cash and write checks from a woman's inactive bank account, police said.

According to a Boynton Beach Police arrest report, Dort — along with three others — got access to the account through their friend, Jacqueline Dillion, 29, who was a teller at the 1601 Boynton Beach Blvd. branch.

Dort, Lisa Ollis, 38, and Jessica Cruz-Torres, 29, would go to Dillion's teller window and get money out of the account, which Dillion knew was inactive because she worked at the bank. Dort, Ollis and Cruz-Torres would each get a cut of the cash they took out, police said.

Cruz-Torres was arrested and released from the Palm Beach County Jail on Tuesday. Dort is currently in the jail in lieu of a $15,000 bail.

Dillion and Ollis remain at large.

Greenacres woman charged in bank fraud scheme

Lisa Ollis, 38, of Greenacres, has been charged with grand theft, forgery and organized scheme to defraud. She was arrested Tuesday and released Wednesday afternoon after posting $10,000 bond.

Two other women involved have been charged.

The scheme went into motion in October 2011, according to the report. Ollis told police that she met with a man who said he knew a TD Bank employee that could “take care of (her)”.

On October 24, Ollis went to a TD Bank at 1601 W. Boynton Beach Blvd., where she was expected to cash a check and bring the man money. She withdrew $53,281 that day, according to the report. On a separate occasion, she withdrew $9,850.

According to the report, the money was stolen from a woman’s inactive account — it had gone dormant the previous September. According to the report, Islande Dort, who was arrested June 13 as a suspect in the case and posted bond that same day, deposited $200 into the account on October 20, 2011, reactivating it.

After Dort’s original deposit, a total of $87,581 was withdrawn from the victim’s account, according to the affidavit.

Jessica Cruz-Torres, a suspect in the scheme who was arrested June 10 and posted bond the same day, said that during one withdrawal, she accompanied Ollis. She was told to hand two pieces of paper to a bank employee, who in return gave her an envelope with cash and checks amounting to either $500 or $700. Cruz-Torres identified Ollis in a surveillance video of her withdrawals.

Victims startled by $10.5 million embezzlement scheme at Jacksonville's Fifth Third Bank

A Jacksonville woman whose family lost and then got back nearly $6 million embezzled from their account at a Jacksonville bank remains bitter nearly a year after the crime was discovered.
“Hell, yes,” said the woman, 66, about her feelings of anger. “My husband has worked six days a week for his whole life since he was 14 and here he’s taking care of our family and finally decided he could retire and this guy steals all of his money.”

The guy, prosecutors said, is ex-Fifth Third Bank vice president and private banker Christopher David Boston, who is set to appear in federal court in Jacksonville Wednesday afternoon to enter a plea of guilty to bank fraud in the theft of $10.5 million from the bank’s north Mandarin branch.

Court records show Boston, 40, has already signed a plea agreement and faces up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine. He has not been arrested, but Wednesday’s hearing is scheduled to serve as an initial appearance where bail could be set.

Boston is accused of operating a bank fraud scheme that included stealing $10.5 million from at least one corporate account and transferring money from at least two individual accounts to cover the original thefts. The embezzlement occurred over 3 1/2 years ending in April 2013.

Court records show that Boston used $210,000 to make $2,000 monthly mortgage payments on his family’s Mandarin home, install a backyard pool and for other expenses.

Prosecutors said Boston used the rest of the money to help his customers, and ultimately his own standing in the bank, with favors such as paying off troubled loans and making “off-book” loans to those whose applications had been denied.

The bank replenished the embezzled accounts and had arranged new loans with Boston’s customers, recovering all but about $2 million, which is federally insured, court records show.

Boston could not be reached to comment and his defense attorney, former State Attorney Harry Shorstein, has declined to comment, as have prosecutors.

The woman is the first victim of the scheme to speak publicly about the theft, which she said involved money her husband made by selling his family manufacturing business early last year. The victim and her husband are well-known in the community for their philanthropy. She asked that she not be identified for her protection because of the amount of money taken and returned.

The woman said she and her husband first learned about the trouble when they went to the bank near closing time one day last April to have a statement notarized for a real estate deal. A bank official — not Boston, who worked closely with the husband — said he noticed some unusual activity in their account from the previous night.

The couple saw on a computer screen that all but $120,000 of their $6 million had been transferred out of the account.

“My husband kind of turned white,” the woman said. “I figured they made a mistake and put it somewhere and they would put it back.”

She said the bank official didn’t have an immediate explanation but assured the couple not to worry. She said the man and others at the bank scrambled for answers while the couple waited. She said Boston called, apparently in response to a call from the bank to him, and he talked by speaker to the official who broke the news.

“He [the official] let him know we were in there,” the woman said. “He [Boston] said, ‘Well, I’m out sick.’ ”

She said the conversation ended abruptly and bank officials told the couple they would try to get answers the next day. She said an executive with the bank’s corporate office in Cincinnati made arrangements to meet with her husband. She said the executive told her husband about the embezzlement and that multiple individual accounts were affected.

The bank put the money back in their account within a few days and officials pleaded with them to keep it there. But the couple was concerned that the scheme had gone on for so long and her husband decided to move most of the money elsewhere after having banked there for 15 years.

“It was a stake through our heart,” the woman said. “How could you trust somebody that did that to you?”

The woman said she still doesn’t understand how most of the stolen money was used to help other customers, as prosecutors have said.

“This was not Robin Hood taking from the rich and giving to the poor,” she said. “He was about to make us suicidal.”

Judge in bank embezzlement case recuses himself

A judge has recused himself from the case of a local banker charged with embezzling millions of dollars.
The judge said he had a conflict.


Federal prosecutors accused Christopher Boston, a former vice president at the Fifth Third Bank in Mandarin, Florida of embezzling more than $10.5 million from accounts and using the cash to fund loans for bank customers previously denied loans.


Boston faced up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine.


In March, Boston signed off on a plea deal with the state.  If approved by the new judge, Boston would pay $2.2 million in fines and forfeit his assets, but see no jail time for pleading guilty to bank fraud.

Fifth Third Bank VP admits to embezzling $10 million largely and oddly to help Jacksonville customers

Federal authorities have charged a former Jacksonville bank vice president with embezzling $10.5 million for himself and customers, oddly using the money to help them with loans and other banking favors, court records show.
Christopher David Boston, 40, entered into a plea agreement with prosecutors last week in which he admitted to the thefts from Fifth Third Bank over a 3½-year period, records show. The thefts occurred while Boston was working as a vice president and a private banker at the bank’s Mandarin branch at 9716 San Jose Blvd. just south of Old St. Augustine Road. A private banker handles high dollar accounts, of which Boston had dozens.
Boston has not been arrested and is set to be in court next week to formally enter the plea to bank fraud, which carries a sentence of up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine. Boston could not be reached to comment and his defense attorney, former State Attorney Harry Shorstein, declined to comment, as did prosecutors.
A one-count information, which is a charging document prepared by federal prosecutors in lieu of an indictment, and the plea agreement initialed by Boston were filed in the federal clerk’s office in Jacksonville Feb. 19.
Boston, a bank employee since about 2007, admitted embezzling the money from one large commercial corporate account and two individual customer accounts, falsifying bank records and illegally laundered funds between November 2009 and April 2013.
About $8.3 million was taken from the individual accounts, while about $2.2 million came from the corporate account. The account holders were not identified in court records.
Boston electronically transferred the $8.3 million to the corporate account to help conceal a theft from that account, according to the records. It’s unclear if  the individual account holders noticed the money was missing. The records do not say what triggered the investigation.
Boston used about $210,000 of the stolen money to pay down mortgage payments of about $2,000 for a Mandarin home on Emily’s Crossing Court just off Losco Road. That money also went toward installing a backyard swimming pool, court records show.
The home was given to his wife after she was granted a divorce in September, several months after her husband lost his job during the investigation, the couple's divorce file said. Records show about $250,000 was owed on the two-story home at the time of the divorce.
Court records said Boston used the bulk of the stolen money to:
■ Pay off the troubled loans in his customer portfolio.
■ Make “off-book” loans to customers whose loan applications had previously been denied and then making off-book interest payments on those loans. The records said many of those customers unknowingly received the benefit, though a further explanation was not provided.
■ Deposit the money into other customer accounts to fraudulently bolster their creditworthiness.
■ Provide customers “enhanced” interest returns on deposit accounts.
It’s unclear how Boston benefited, if at all, by helping the other customers. None of those customers are named in the information or plea agreement.
After discovering the theft, the bank “took corrective action in order to make their victimized clients whole and then to attempt to recover bank funds embezzled by the defendant,” the plea agreement said.
The records said the bank replenished the three accounts, then attempted to issue legitimate loans to customers who received about $8.4 million in “off-the-book and non-conforming” loans from Boston.
“Fortunately, the majority of the individuals that had unknowingly received the benefit ... voluntarily agreed to sign new bank-approved and legitimate loan documents,” the plea agreement said.
About $6.4 million in new loans were made, leaving about $2 million likely never to be recovered by the bank. The money is insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. About $2.2 million in restitution is being sought from Boston, the records said.
Fifth Third Bancorp, headquartered in Cincinnati, has about 10 branches in the Jacksonville area and 1,320 full-service banking centers in 12 states, according to the company’s website. Bank branch officials declined to comment on the case, instead referring all inquiries to the bank’s corporate office. An email from that office said that all affected customers have been contacted and that none would suffer a loss.
Boston and his ex-wife have one child, records show. At the time of the divorce, the wife worked at another branch of Fifth Third Bank. Records do not connect her to the case in any way and she has not been charged.

Woman accused of embezzling $20K from Credit Union

A 29-year-old woman is accused of embezzling $20,000 from the Oakland Park credit union where she worked, according to a Broward Sheriff's Office report.

Tiffany May, of Lauderhill, was charged with grand theft in connection with the missing money from Priority One Credit Union, 1900 W. Oakland Park Blvd. She was ordered held on $5,000 bail during her first-appearance court hearing Wednesday.

According to the report, May was captured in a surveillance video placing one money bag, instead of two, into the vault. When confronted, May admitted to taking the money over a period of more than three years, the report said.

She told investigators that to avoid detection, she made transfers to her till when her money drawer was counted each month.

May said she spent the money on bills, but returned $12,700 to the credit union after her employer confronted her, authorities said.

Florida Bank Executives and Attorney Charged with Conspiracy, Wire Fraud, False Statements, and Making a False Claim Against the United States

Donald Terry Dubose, a/k/a Terry Dubose, 65, of Panama City Beach, Florida; Elwood Ladon West, a/k/a Woody West, 39 of Monroeville, Alabama; and Frank Alfred Baker, 61, of Marianna, Florida, have been charged for their roles in a fraud scheme involving the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s (FDIC) Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program (TLGP), announced U.S. Attorney Pamela C. Marsh for the Northern District of Florida. The TLGP was created at the height of the 2008 financial crisis in order to encourage lending but, according to the allegations, was misused by the defendants to shield themselves and their institution from financial losses.

The defendants were indicted by a federal grand jury with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud against the FDIC, seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of making false statements to the FDIC, and one count of aiding and abetting a false claim against the United States. A sealed indictment was returned by a federal grand jury on July 9, 2013, and unsealed today.

The indictment alleges that Coastal Community Investments (Coastal) was a bank-holding company that owned Coastal Community Bank, based in Panama City Beach, Florida, and Bayside Savings Bank, based in Port St. Joe, Florida. Coastal Community Bank and Bayside Savings Bank both failed on July 30, 2010. Dubose was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Coastal and the second largest Coastal shareholder. West was the Chief Financial Officer of Coastal and a Coastal shareholder. Baker was an attorney for Coastal and Coastal’s largest shareholder.

The fraud alleged in the indictment involved the TLGP, which was created at the height of the financial crisis in October 2008. The purpose of the TLGP was to encourage banks to begin lending to one another again and, thereby, help stabilize the economy. To do this, the TLGP provided that the FDIC would guarantee a loan made by one financial institution (the “lender”) to another financial institution (the “borrower”) in an amount up to 125 percent of the borrower’s existing senior unsecured debt (outstanding-unsecured debt), thus assuring repayment to the lender by the borrower or, in the event of default, by the FDIC.

The indictment further alleges that, in October 2008, Coastal had a $3 million loan with RBC Bank (USA), which was secured by 100 percent of the stock of Coastal Community Bank and Bayside Savings Bank (the RBC Loan). At that time, the RBC Loan was in default, thus giving RBC the ability to exercise its right to take the pledged stock and potentially rendering defendants’ shares in Coastal worthless. Under pressure from RBC to repay this debt, the indictment alleges that the defendants falsely certified to the FDIC that the RBC Loan was unsecured, knowing that it was secured, so that Coastal could get an FDIC guaranteed loan under the TLGP.

The indictment further alleges that Coastal obtained a $3,750,000 (125 percent of the RBC Loan) loan from central Florida-based CenterState Bank, which—based on the defendants’ misrepresentations—was guaranteed by the FDIC under the TLGP (the TLGP Loan). Coastal used the proceeds of the TLGP Loan to repay the RBC Loan. In June 2010, Coastal defaulted on the TLGP Loan, and, on August 7, 2010, CenterState Bank filed a claim with the FDIC for payment of the full amount due on the TLGP Loan, plus interest. The FDIC paid CenterState’s claim on August 13, 2010 by wiring $3,805,833.34 in principal and interest from the FDIC to CenterState.

Finally, the indictment alleges that Dubose, desiring to avoid losses to himself and his family as Coastal’s financial condition deteriorated, fraudulently sold and converted Coastal stock owned by him and his family members to unwitting investors by misrepresenting the nature of the stock, by misrepresenting Coastal’s financial condition, and by providing loans from Coastal Community Bank to finance the purchases of Coastal stock.

Defendants are scheduled for to appear in federal court for their initial appearance and arraignment on August 8, 2013 at 1:30 p.m. at the U.S. District Courthouse in Panama City, Fla.

The defendants face a maximum of 30 years in prison for each count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud and a maximum of five years in prison for making false statements to the FDIC and aiding and abetting CenterState Bank in making a false claim against the United States.

This indictment results from an extensive investigation by agents of the Federal Reserve Board-Office of the Inspector General, FBI, FDIC, and Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Gayle Littleton.

An indictment is merely an allegation by a grand jury that a defendant has committed a violation of federal criminal law and is not evidence of guilt. All defendants are presumed innocent and entitled to a fair trial, during which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Former Orlando Fifth Third executive pleads guilty to tax charge stemming from embezzlement

A former assistant vice president at Fifth Third Bank in Orlando today pleaded guilty to a tax charge stemming from an embezzlment scheme at the bank, prosecutors said.




Nikki Christine Highfield, 39, of Maineville, Ohio, agreed to plead guilty to filing a false tax-related document. Prosecutors say she falsified income-tax forms by failing to declare the embezzled funds as income.



The government was cheated out of more than $24,000 in 2005 and nearly $22,000 in 2006 as a result, court documents show. Highfield's husband, whose name was on the jointly filed returns, was unaware of the scheme, the government said.




Highfield was assistant vice president and regional risk and administration manager at Fifth Third Bank from 2005 to 2008. She oversaw cashiers' checks the bank issued and reconciliation of the bank's account, court papers show.




Prosecutors say she made out cashiers' checks worth nearly $275,000 to herself and her creditors and covered them with other checks from the bank's account.





The crime is punishable by up to three years in prison, one year of probation and a fine. However, the government agreed to recommend that Highfield receive a lighter sentence.



As part of the plea agreement, reached in July, Highfield agreed not to work for a bank or credit union.

Lake County bank employee charged with stealing money, identities of elderly and dead customers in Florida

A Lake County woman who worked at a credit union and a bank stole money from both financial institutions and elderly customers, according to an indictment that estimates she embezzled more than $400,000.Nazreen Mohammed, 47, faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted of bank fraud or embezzlement.She worked at as a loan officer at Fairwinds Credit Union in 2009 where she used her status as an employee to access customer accounts, creating loans and making withdrawals from customers, many of whom were elderly or dead.Authorities said Mohammed tried to disguise her schemes with multiple transactions.The federal indictment alleges that Mohammed tried to steal $127,000 from the credit union and its customers and more than $300,000 from customers of a Lake County branch of the Royal Bank of Canada.She tapped account information of some of that bank's elderly customers, too. The indictment said she used information from the accounts to make unauthorized withdrawals and change account beneficiary designations.

Former Panama City, Florida Bank Employee Sentenced for Embezzlement

Pamela C. Marsh, the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida, announced that former bank employee Kelawanoia W. McKay, 34, of Panama City, was sentenced Wednesday to 30 months in federal prison for embezzling funds from Tyndall Federal Credit Union.

United State District Judge Richard A. Smoak also ordered McKay to serve a term of five years’ supervised release upon her release from custody and to pay $157,713.38 in restitution.
On March 17 2010, McKay pled guilty to a one count information charging her with bank embezzlement, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 656. Facts presented during the plea hearing revealed that McKay was a lead financial representative at Tyndall Federal Credit Union and that from on or about July 1, 2008 to July 13, 2009, she used her position to embezzle at least $157,713.38 from the bank.
Ms. Marsh praised the work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bay County Sheriff’s Office, whose joint investigation led to McKay’s plea and sentencing.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United State Attorney J. Ryan Love.







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