New York Man Sentenced to Five Years in Prison for Bank Fraud Scheme

PHILADELPHIA – United States Attorney David Metcalf announced that Oliver Tejada, 25, of the Bronx, New York, was sentenced by United States District Judge Timothy J. Savage to 60 months in prison, three years of supervised release, and forfeiture of $780,837.11, in connection with a scheme to steal more than $1 million from the bank accounts of at least 23 victims. In some instances, the financial institutions were able to reverse the fraudulent transactions, resulting in an actual loss to the banks of $780,837.11.

Tejada was charged by indictment in May 2024 and pleaded guilty in March of this year to conspiracy to commit bank fraud, bank fraud, and aggravated identity theft.

To carry out their scheme, Tejada and associates obtained confidential bank account information from their victims, some of whom were elderly or retired. After the account information had been secured, the conspirators made phone calls to the various banks to obtain a current balance on the account and attempted to obtain additional information about the accounts.

Once all the necessary banking documentation was secured, Tejada worked with an imposter to steal the cash from the bank. Tejada obtained a fake identification card with the photo of the imposter but the personal identifying information of the victim, and then transported that imposter to a bank branch location, ten out of eleven of which were located within the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

That imposter sometimes secured a bank debit card using the fake identification documents. More often, the imposter made a large withdrawal or placed a large wire transfer to the account of an individual who had been recruited to receive the money. After receiving the wire transfer, the receiving account was quickly depleted.

The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Robert J. Livermore.