Ex-Bank Employee In Nutley Stole Dead Customer’s Benefits: Feds

NUTLEY, NJ — A former employee at a bank in Nutley has admitted that he fraudulently withdrew more than $105,000 in federal retirement benefits from the account of a deceased customer, federal prosecutors announced Thursday.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Jorge Nova, 35, of Passaic, pleaded guilty earlier this week to an indictment charging him with wire fraud.

Prosecutors released the following statement about the allegations against Nova:

“In 2014, Nova was an employee at a commercial bank in Nutley, New Jersey, where a customer received Social Security Administration (SSA) 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 causing debit cards to be issued to himself in the beneficiary’s name, which he then used 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.”

The count of wire fraud is punishable by a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a maximum $250,000 fine, prosecutors said.

Sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 8.

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