Englewood Cliffs Woman Surrenders to FBI for Embezzlement

A former assistant vice president at a Fort Lee bank surrendered to the FBI today for her alleged involvement in a scheme to embezzle over $1 million from her employer, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Miye Chon, also known as Karen Chon, 34, of Englewood Cliffs, worked at BankAsiana where she allegedly stole over $1 million by making unauthorized transfers from customer accounts to BankAsiana’s vault cash account. From there, Chon would physically remove cash from the bank’s vault.

Chon allegedly embezzled tens of thousands of dollars on a dozen occasions and even took $100,000 from a customer’s CD account once. But during last September and October, Chon allegeldy made multiple unauthorized transfers totaling $1.2 million to cover losses in other customer accounts she had stolen from.

Chon is scheduled to make her initial appearance Sept. 23 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Steven C. Mannion in Newark federal court. She is charged by complaint with theft, embezzlement or misapplication of funds by a bank officer or employee.

She faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison, a maximum fine of the greater of $1 million or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense and a mandatory restitution order in the full amount of BankAsiana’s $1.4 million loss.