A Mount Vernon man was arrested Oct. 6 and accused of diverting nearly half a million dollars from a Yonkers hospital payroll account to 12 personal credit card accounts.
Kevin Christopher was charged with wire fraud the following day in U.S. District Court, White Plains, for allegedly stealing $469,411 from the unnamed hospital.
Though Christopher fooled the hospital for 18 months, from October 2017 to April 2019, as depicted in the criminal complaint, he apparently got caught because he didn”™t disguise himself on the credit card accounts.
Christopher never worked for or had any business connections to the hospital, according to an affidavit by FBI agent Caroline Gilmore, yet he obtained payroll account information that enabled him to gain unauthorized access to hospital funds.
Then he opened credit card accounts with seven financial institutions and four retailers, according to the complaint, and provided the hospital”™s bank routing number to transfer funds.
He allegedly used hospital funds to pay off his credit card bills and to take cash advances.
Last year, a hospital employee noticed the wire transfers, an audit was conducted and the alleged unauthorized transactions were identified.
Records provided by Yonkers police showed that Christopher used his name, date of birth, Social Security number, telephone number and his address for an apartment building on 9th Avenue, Mount Vernon, when he set up credit card accounts.
The affidavit describes two incidents in which he used one of the credit cards to pay a Bronx dentist $32,000 for services.
Gilmore matched photographs of Christopher from the dentist’s office to photographs from the state Department of Motor Vehicles, according to her affidavit. She also reviewed credit reports from Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, and telephone records from Sprint, that connected Christopher to the Mount Vernon address used on the credit cards.
The criminal complaint does not name the financial institutions or retailers that issued the credit cards.
But recent lawsuits do link him to two financial institutions, with details that are consistent with the criminal complaint.
Despite having the means to pay off his credit card debts, as charged by the federal government, the lawsuits depict him as failing to pay.
American Express sued Christopher a year ago in Westchester Supreme Court, claiming he never made payments on a Gold Card. Christopher did not respond to the lawsuit, according to the complaint, and American Express has asked for a default judgment for $9,958.36.
This past August, Absolute Resolutions Investments LLC, a debt collection agency that purchased a Citibank credit card account held by Christopher, sued to collect a $10,467.09 balance.
Christopher was released from custody on a $2,000 bond. He was represented by Susanne Brody, a public defender.
