An ex-JPMorgan Chase executive has admitted to stealing $2.4 million from the banks’ clients, new court documents show.
judgment filed on March 15th at the US District Court in the Southern District of New York, Judge Denise L. Cote sentences Kevin Chiu to 48 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to bank fraud.
According to government prosecutors, Chiu from at least six accounts held by five different customers by using his position to transfer funds out of their accounts without their authorization or knowledge.
After taking control of the customers’ funds, Chiu then used them to trade securities, pay personal expenses, and cover up his thefts from some accounts by replacing the missing funds with more funds he stole from other accounts.
Prosecutors say one of the victims, who lost $900,000 to Chiu’s misconduct, was a 74-year-old wheelchair-bound woman who trusted him to manage most of her finances.
“She requested instead that the defendant hand her a copy of her account statement when she would visit the branch. She trusted the defendant to manage her finances.
The defendant took advantage of this arrangement to steal almost a million dollars from her account, nearly draining it, and then created false account statements—that he handed to her personally when she would visit him at the branch in a wheelchair—to hide that any money was missing.
He also took advantage of her trust and reliance on him by asking her to sign blank transaction forms when she was in the branch, which he used to steal her money.”
On top of the prison time, Chiu is also ordered to pay $1.6 million in restitution, and will be on probation for three years following his release.
