Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Investigating Theft by Bank Employees

The financial crisis has thrown a spotlight on the banking industry and the wrongdoings of Wall Street. Now a CBS 5 investigation reveals your local bank branch on Main street may also have skeletons in the closet.

It was masked bandits who made off with 86 year old Ralph Hill's money. "I knew something was wrong," he said. But this was no random street crime. It was an inside job, a crime that started when he lost his Wells Fargo ATM card.

The bank sent him a new card, but before he could even use it he got a notice saying: "..that I was overdrawn. I've never been overdrawn in my life," Hill said.

And when Hill got to the bank he recalled, "I went in and discovered my bank account was empty." $8,000 was gone.

When police investigated, who did they arrest? A teller at the bank.

Theft by bank employees? Turns out, it's happening all over the Bay Area. CBS 5 Investigates found half a dozen recent cases where bank employees were charged or convicted for stealing customers' money. But experts say there's another kind of financial abuse that can happen at a bank, where customers, many of them elderly, may be victimized by employees they trust.

That's what Leslie Larsen believes happened to her 77-year-old mother Frances Saimons. "She has been taken advantage of," Larson says.

Full Article and Source:
Bay Area Bank Thefts Uncovered

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Where is America going?

Wall Street should be put on trial; not just the bank tellers.

jerri said...

aha i knew it these people at the bank are watching their customers and their records you know it is fact that safe deposit boxes with active current renters go to their box and find they have been cleaned out and then the thieves have the nerve to say oh what did you have in that box? oh sure do you have the proof? poooooof all chance of recovery

is this type of scam on the front page of every newspaper oh no of course not we are at more risk from financial predators at every step of the way than we are from terrorists

anon wants to know where America is going? Heck we're there on our way to hell on earth

helensniece said...

You bet there is a lot more of this going on, many cases are buried, the victims pass away, no one around to complain and statute of limitations expires.

My parents late 80's, were targets of a greedy bank rep scam. She used bank records to access my parents home address etc. She sent her husband to my parents house. He showed up in the evening knocking on their windows yelling through locked doors that he is a "financial advisor" husband of Mary _____ from their bank and he is there "to help" my parents with their finanances.

My parents told him through locked doors to go away. When they told me what happened, I wanted to immediately report Mary to every law enforcement agency but my parents were afraid they would be hauled into court to testify.

Mary is still at that bank and every time I see her I want to grab her by her hair and drag her to the police station.

I guarantee you they are a team, targeting the vulnerable bank clients. I am still steaming.

Anonymous said...

My nemesis is a bank. Banks have their hands in guardianship because it's big bucks/big profits.

StandUp said...

Every suspicious transaction a bank finds is an opportunity for them to charge in and claim guardianship.

Anonymous said...

I don't trust banks a bit.

Anonymous said...

There are two types of people:

PREADATORS and their PREY

Anonymous said...

Why won't the media look into this sort of robbery? This should be a BIG scandal throughout America.