A 24-year-old former White Plains bank teller will serve a state prison term of two to six years for her role in a nearly $1 million regional identity theft ring.
The prison sentence for Nadia Figueroa was announced by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. “After abusing her position as a teller and taking advantage of the trust of bank customers, Nadia Figueroa will now serve serious prison time,” he said.
The Bronx resident pleaded guilty earlier this year to stealing customer data while employed as a bank teller at a JPMorgan Chase in White Plains, as part of what the attorney general’s office called a “brazen” identity-theft ring that stole more than $850,000 from hundreds of consumers in the metropolitan area.
The 15-count indictment lodged against her in Westchester County Supreme Court included four counts of third-degree grand larceny, seven counts of first-degree identity theft, three counts of second- degree criminal possession of a forged instrument and one count of first-degree scheme to defraud – all felony charges.
Two other Bronx residents, the scheme”™s ringleader, Tyrone “Reece” Lee, and defendant Anthony “Sug” Davis, also pleaded guilty in April and were sentenced to state prison for their roles in the ring.
Lee, 28, was sentenced to 4 1/2 Â to nine years in state prison after pleading guilty to multiple charges of grand larceny and identity theft.
Davis, 29,  the ring’s document forger, was sentenced to two to six years in state prison. He is currently serving a 10-year sentence in federal prison in a separate federal identify theft case.
According to Schneiderman’s office, Lee orchestrated the hiring of corrupt bank tellers at Westchester and New York City-area banks. He directed the tellers, including Figueroa, to target customers with common names and over $50,000 in their accounts.
After receiving the stolen customer information from tellers, Lee conspired with Davis to create fraudulent checks and identification documents using the stolen customer information. Lee also arranged for other ring members to impersonate bank account holders to withdraw money at bank branches in Westchester, New York City and Long Island, as well as Connecticut and Massachusetts.
The identify-theft ring operated between July 2010 and June 2014. Its victims included hundreds of customers at several banks, which also include Bank of America in White Plains, JPMorgan Chase in Yonkers, and Wachovia Bank, now Wells Fargo, in Newburgh.
