Bronx man, 'leader' of bank-fraud scam, convicted
Tyrone Lee was already serving up to 9 years in state prison for a similar scheme that bilked $850K from customers in Westchester County, tri-state area.
A Bronx man, already serving time for running an identity-theft scheme in Westchester County, was convicted Friday of running a similar scam that bilked nearly half a million dollars from customers in Newburgh, according to authorities.
Tyrone “Reece” Lee, 29, was convicted in Orange County Court of 15 counts, including grand larceny and identity theft, related to swindling more than $457,000 from customers of the former Wachovia Bank, now known as Wells Fargo, according to Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.
Lee faces up to 20 years in prison.
“Today’s conviction shows that those who steal New Yorkers’ personal financial information will be held accountable,” Schneiderman said in a released statement “We will do everything that we can to protect innocent businesses and their customers from the growing problem of identity theft.”
In 2015, Lee pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 4 1/2 to nine years in state prison for being the “ringleader” of an identity-theft ring that stole more than $850,000 from customers in Westchester County and the tri-state area.
During the most recent trial, Lee was also described as the “leader” of a bank-fraud scheme between June 2010 and August 2011. Lee recruited his girlfriend, Nadia Figueroa, as an accomplice, who got a job working as a bank teller at a Wachovia bank at 41 North Plank Road in Newburgh.
Once Figueroa was hired, she was directed by Lee on how and what customer data to pilfer. Figueroa would search for common names and take their information, including bank account numbers, social security numbers and signature cards.
Figueroa, who testified at the trial, said she gained access to more than 200 bank customers' data during her seven weeks of employment at the Wachovia bank in Newburgh.
Wachovia branches in Yonkers, the Bronx, and Westfield, New Jersey, were among the 123 Wachovia branches whose customers' information was compromised.
Figueroa gave the customers’ information to Lee, who would then enlist other coconspirators to withdraw funds from the accounts. Lee even went as far as obtaining fake driver’s licenses with the photos of the other coconspirators and bank account customers’ names, which were then used at out-of-state bank branches to withdraw money from the accounts.
Lee withdrew about $457,980 from 77 customer accounts in Nassau County, New York City, New Jersey, Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, and Virginia.
For her part in the scheme, Figueroa was sentenced in May 2015 to up to six years in prison.
On Friday, Lee was found guilty of one count of grand larceny, 13 counts of identity theft, and one count of a scheme to defraud, all of which are felonies.
The attorney general’s office was assisted by the state department of financial services, Orange Count Sheriff’s Office, and state police.
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