$111K Stolen From Bank Customers' Accounts by Employee

East Lyme resident Alexander Alvarez, 33, was sentenced to 18 months of imprisonment, followed by four years of supervised release, for stealing more $100,000 from customers of the bank where he was employed, according to Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut.

According to court documents and statements made in court, from January 2012 to February 2013, Alvarez was employed as a Financial Service Representative for a bank in Newington.

While employed at the bank, Alvarez identified accounts that had little banking activity. He then caused the mailing address for the accounts he targeted to be changed from the owner’s address to a fraudulent address so that transactions in the accounts would not be immediately discovered by the account owner.

Alvarez then created fraudulent transfer slips causing the funds to be transferred to another account that he believed was dormant, or to an account that he directly controlled, or to be issued in a bank check. Once the funds were transferred from the owner’s account, Alvarez withdrew the funds from the bank in cash or via an ATM card, or transferred them to his personal banking account.

Alvarez stole $100,806 from one bank customer and $11,137 from a second bank customer. He was ordered to pay full restitution, plus interest, to the bank.

On April 21, 2015, Alvarez pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud.

This matter was investigated by the Connecticut Financial Crimes Task Force, the Stratford Police Department and the Greenwich Police Department. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ray Miller.