Sunday, April 14, 2013

Bank Worker Charged With Bilking Indiana Elderly

Federal embezzlement charges have been lodged against a bank worker in Greensburg, after two elderly customers reported that their accounts had been drained.

Michelle Wagner, a customer service manager for Fifth Third Bank  branch in Greensburg, is charged with taking money from two victims’ accounts between July 2010 and December 2011.

Federal investigators accuse Wagner of pocketing more than $344,000 from the victims’ accounts, after having promised to write checks and pay their routine living expenses using the money from their accounts. Investigators said the victims never authorized her to take money for herself.

For the first victim, agents said Wagner started issuing cashier’s checks and withdrawing cash from the account, totaling $128,404.

Agents said Wagner cashed in numerous certificates of deposit belonging to the second victim, adding up to $171,686. She is also accused of withdrawing $44,829 from the victim’s other accounts, from which she was supposed to be paying the victim’s bills.

A spokesperson for Fifth Third Bank in Indianapolis did not respond to a request for comment.

Full Article and Source:
Bank Worker Charged With Bilking Indiana Elderly

3 comments:

Thelma said...

Banks are supposed to be watching for elder financial exploitation.
Where were they in this case?

Connie said...

Banks are spending alot of time trying to be mandatory reporters of suspected theft against the elderly. They should be watching themselves!

Sue said...

Oh some employees and upper management in banks are watching all right, their customers who are most vulnerable, alone, those who lost their spouses, particularly their aging customers engaging them in chit chat with intent to extract family dynamics and additional financial information and income.

Beware eyes are on us we are nothing more than a $.