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A Cleveland bank teller has reportedly been accused of forging names and other documents to drain tens of thousands of dollars out of customers’ bank accounts.
According to a new report by a local news outlet, federal prosecutors say that Denice James, a teller at First Federal Savings of Lorain, allegedly stole approximately $75,000 from eight different victims by faking documents and embezzled $1,000 from the bank itself.
The report says that James stole the money between July 25, 2023, and November 2, 2023, by forging customers’ names on bank slips and submitting them right before the bank closed, as no customers were inside. She would then process the withdrawals and take the cash for herself.
She has been charged with eight counts of bank fraud, eight counts of aggravated identity theft, and one count of embezzlement, to which she has pleaded not guilty.
This incident is the latest in a string of fraud schemes involving bank tellers. In May, a bank teller in Maryland pleaded guilty to stealing $255,000 from his employer’s elderly clients by having conspirators impersonate victims to make fraudulent bank withdrawals.
In March, a bank teller from New York, whose job it was to tally up money at the end of the day, was accused of stealing $1,000,000 in cash from his bank’s vault by forging signatures.
