NEWARK, N.J. (1010 WINS) – A New Jersey bank employee was charged with fraudulently withdrawing retirement benefits from the account of a former customer who had died, US Attorney Philip Sellinger announced Wednesday.
Jorge Nova, 35, was charged by indictment with one count of wire fraud.
According to documents, in 2014, Nova was an employee at a commercial bank in Nutley, where a customer received Social Security Administration retirement benefits via direct deposit.
The Social Security Administration was not notified of the beneficiary's death and continued to deposit retirement benefits into the beneficiary's bank account for more than four years, until October 2018.
Nova fraudulently obtained funds from the beneficiary's account by issuing debit cards to himself in the beneficiary's name and using it to drain the retirement benefits from the beneficiary's bank account.
Nova also registered new accounts with a money service provider in the name of the deceased beneficiary and withdrew money from a second bank account held in the beneficiary's name.
Nova fraudulently obtained more than $105,000 intended for the deceased beneficiary, authorities said.
If convicted, wire fraud is punishable by a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a maximum $1 million fine.
