A 24-year-old former bank teller on Tuesday pleaded guilty to third-degree grand larceny for her role in an identity theft ring that stole over $850,000 from the accounts of hundreds of customers at several banks in the metropolitan region.
New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced the guilty plea of Nadia Figueroa, a Bronx resident who admitted stealing customer data while employed as a JPMorgan Chase bank teller in White Plains. In exchange for Figueroa’s plea in state Supreme Court in Westchester County, Justice Barry E. Warhit agreed to a reduced sentence of two to six years in state prison, Schneiderman said.
Operating for four years until last June, the ring used Figueroa and other bank tellers to steal personal information, including account numbers and Social Security numbers, from customers at Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, HSBC, TD Bank and Wachovia, according to the attorney general”™s office. Working at the Chase branch at 235 Main St. in downtown White Plains, Figueroa targeted customers with common surnames and more than $50,000 in their accounts.
The copied customer data was used by others in the criminal ring to create fraudulent checks and identification documents that were used to withdraw money at bank branches in Westchester County, New York City and Long Island, as well as Connecticut and Massachusetts, according to prosecutors.
The theft ring also victimized customers at bank branches in Yonkers, the Bronx, Jericho on Long Island, and as far north as Newburgh.
The attorney general”™s office  said the scheme”™s ringleader, Tyrone “Reese” Lee, and another defendant, Anthony “Sug” Davis, pleaded guilty last month to their roles in the ring.
Figueroa is scheduled to be sentenced to her prison term on May 14.
