NEWS

Bank tellers helped steal identities, $850G, A.G. says

Hoa Nguyen

htnguyen@lohud.com

Nadia Figueroa, 23, of the Bronx, reacts as she listens to the prosecutor make a case for $50,000 bail during her arraignment in Westchester County Court Sept. 16, 2014. Figueroa was among three people charged in connection with an identity-theft ring targeting bank customers across Westchester and Orange counties

Nearly $1 million and hundreds of bank customers' account and Social Security numbers were stolen over at least four years by an identity-theft ring that included three bank tellers working in Westchester and other areas, Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman said Tuesday.

Investigators from the Attorney General's Office conducted wiretaps and overheard the tellers and two others speak in code, calling customer accounts "joints" and referring to $1,000 stacks of cash as "bands," TD Bank as "touchdown" and JPMorgan Chase as "yase," authorities said.

Tyrone Lee, 28, of the Bronx — who authorities say was the ringleader — along with fellow Bronx residents and former tellers Kalika Arline, 29, and Nadia Figueroa, 23, were arraigned Tuesday in White Plains before Westchester County Court Judge Barry Warhit.

Tyrone Lee was among five people indicted Sept. 16, 2014 in an identity-theft ring targeting bank customers across Westchester and Orange counties, among other areas.

Nadia Figueroa was among five people indicted Sept. 16, 2014 in an identity-theft ring targeting bank customers across Westchester and Orange counties, among other areas.

Kalika Arline was among five people indicted Sept. 16, 2014, in an identity-theft ring targeting bank customers across Westchester and Orange counties, among other areas.

They and two others — Anthony Davis, 29, of the Bronx and Venise Cole, 27, of Florida — were indicted on charges of grand larceny, identity theft and scheme to defraud, felonies. Lee, Figueroa and Davis also were charged with criminal possession of a forged instrument, a felony.

Arline was a teller at the Bank of America branch at 206 Main St. in White Plains; Figueroa was a teller at the Wachovia, now Wells Fargo, branch at 43 N. Plank Road, Newburgh, and later, the JPMorgan Chase at 235 Main St., White Plains; and Cole was a teller at the TD Bank in Apollo Beach, Florida.

The tellers were accused of accessing accounts and funneling data to Lee and Davis, who are accused of using the information to create fake driver's licenses, checks and other documents that they then used to withdraw more than $850,000 from branches across New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts, officials said.

In addition to branches where the three tellers worked, police said customers at the JPMorgan Chase branch at 410 S. Broadway in Yonkers, among others, were victims of identity theft.

Lee, Arline and Figueroa pleaded not guilty. Bail was set at $50,000 each for Arline and Figueroa while Lee was held without bail. Already held at Rikers Island on weapons charges with bail set at $2 million, Lee also has an outstanding warrant in Westchester for a probation violation and another warrant out of Dutchess County on a felony charge of driving while intoxicated.

The weapons charges stemmed from a search warrant executed at Lee's Bronx home where police say a handgun was recovered.

Lee is Figueroa's fiance, said her mother, Maribel Figueroa of the Bronx, who was in court for the arraignment, crying as her daughter and Lee were brought to the court in handcuffs.

Maribel Figueroa said she had been told her daughter had been fired from JPMorgan Chase a few months ago because she had spent too much time on the phone at work, not for stealing money.

"I don't know what's going on," Maribel Figueroa said.