A Chinese-American bank employee in Illinois, USA, has been indicted on charges of bank fraud and identity theft of customers. It is reported that he secretly opened accounts without the knowledge of elderly customers and misappropriated funds for his own use.
A federal grand jury has issued an indictment containing 17 charges against Yue Cao, a 34-year-old quantitative modeling analyst at an Ohio bank, accusing him of bank fraud, aggravated identity theft, and engaging in monetary transactions of criminally derived property, as well as participating in a scheme to steal funds from bank customers.
According to the indictment, between May 2022 and April 2023, Yue Cao allegedly participated in a scheme to defraud his employer bank and its customers by transferring funds from customer accounts to accounts under his control, including opening accounts in the names of customers without their knowledge or authorization. He then used the funds stolen from customer accounts for personal purposes.
Yue Cao, being a quantitative modeling analyst, utilized his position to target customers who had not yet registered for online banking services, primarily focusing on the elderly.
Without the knowledge of the victims, Yue Cao created email addresses in their names and used their accounts to register for online banking.
By establishing online banking, he gained control of the victims’ accounts and ensured that the bank sent statements and other notifications related to the accounts to email addresses under his control.
Subsequently, Yue Cao used the victims’ personal identity information to open unauthorized bank accounts and brokerage accounts in their names.
Utilizing his control over these accounts, Yue Cao conducted at least $2.1 million in unauthorized online transfers from the victims’ genuine accounts to the unauthorized accounts opened in the victims’ names as well as his own financial accounts.
It is important to note that the indictment is an accusation and not evidence of guilt. This case will be reviewed in the Northern District of Ohio Federal Court.