SANTA ANA, California – A former Orange County-based financial institution supervisor pleaded responsible at the moment to a federal legal cost for stealing $1.2 million in financial savings from aged prospects through the use of one the victims’ identities to fraudulently open a checking account, then impersonating the sufferer to switch the stolen cash to totally different financial institution accounts.
Lana Pothos, 59, of Anaheim, pleaded responsible to at least one rely of financial institution fraud, a criminal offense that carries a statutory most sentence of 30 years in federal jail.
In line with her plea settlement, throughout the summer time of 2020, Pothos – who labored as a relationship supervisor at a Financial institution of America department in Yorba Linda – and an confederate labored collectively to steal the financial savings of roughly $1.2 million from two married senior citizen purchasers who shared an account with the financial institution.
In June 2020, Pothos used one sufferer’s private identifiable info to create a web-based banking profile for the sufferer with out the sufferer’s data or permission. Utilizing Financial institution of America’s inside pc system, Pothos then modified the victims’ mailing handle to a hair salon in Yorba Linda that Pothos frequented and likewise modified their phone quantity to a cellphone quantity she used. Utilizing that cellphone quantity, Pothos referred to as the financial institution a number of occasions whereas impersonating one of many victims. In July 2020, Pothos’ co-schemer opened a brand new checking account and e-mail handle in a single sufferer’s identify.
On seven events from July 2020 to October 2020, roughly $1,212,144 was transferred out of the victims’ checking account into the fraudulently opened account Pothos and her confederate managed, then transferred once more to an account utilized by the co-schemer at a distinct financial institution. The stolen cash was then used for private bills, together with $47,000 that was transferred to a Pothos-controlled entity.
United States District Decide Cormac J. Carney scheduled a July 10 sentencing listening to on this case.
Theron Fox, 49, of Tustin, Pothos’ alleged co-schemer, is charged with 5 counts of financial institution fraud and two counts of aggravated identification theft. Fox is scheduled to go to trial on February 7.
An indictment accommodates allegations {that a} defendant has dedicated a criminal offense. Each defendant is presumed harmless till and except confirmed responsible past an affordable doubt.
The FBI investigated this matter.
Assistant United States Lawyer Charles E. Pell of the Santa Ana Department Workplace is prosecuting this case.