A federal jury has convicted a Chinese national of using his role as a bank employee to access confidential client information to target elderly customers and create a scheme to steal their money and then use it for his personal benefit.
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After a five-day trial in front of U.S. District Judge J. Philip Calabrese, Yue Cao, 36, was found guilty on 10 counts of bank fraud, four counts of aggravated identity theft, and one count of money laundering.
Court documents and evidence presented before the jury showed that Cao was a quant analytics manager at an Ohio-based bank who was hired to help protect customers from fraud.
Instead, from about 2022 to 2023, he used his access to steal the identities and money of elderly customers who had not enrolled in the bank’s online services.
He did this by first using an offshore service to create email addresses in the names of more than 100 victims.
Then, he used these emails to enroll the victims in online banking—all without their knowledge or authorization. Additionally, Cao directed the victims’ bank statements and other notifications to the email addresses he created. Because he controlled their online banking, he transferred the victims’ money directly to his personal bank and credit card accounts.
He also used the victims’ identities to open accounts in their names without their knowledge and transferred their money into them. Some of these were brokerage accounts, where he then engaged in options trading using their money. He even arranged trades between the unauthorized accounts he set up and his own brokerage account.
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Victims resided in the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Washington, and Canton, Ohio and ranged in age from 90 to 103 years old at the time that Cao secretly enrolled them in online banking.
In total, he conducted about $2 million in unauthorized transfers using his control of the victims’ accounts.
Sentencing is yet to be scheduled.
The defendant faces a minimum, mandatory term of two years and a maximum penalty of up to 30 years in prison.
A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
This case was investigated by the FBI Cleveland Division. The prosecution was led by Assistant United States Attorneys Edward D. Brydle and Michael L. Collyer for the Northern District of Ohio.
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