Bank Employee Hijacks 78-Year-Old Dementia Patient’s Account, Drains $125,000 via Checks, Debit Card Use and Wire Transfers: DOJ

A former employee of a billion-dollar lender faces decades in prison over the disappearance of thousands of dollars from an ailing septuagenarian’s bank account.

According to the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Rhode Island, former Santander Bank employee Carlos Bras drained over $125,000 starting in or about May of 2023 from the account of a 78-year-old customer who was suffering from dementia.

To access and transfer the victim’s funds, Bras secretly enabled online banking for the septuagenarian. Bras also “ordered checks sent to addresses he controlled, and obtained a debit card for personal use.”

According to the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Rhode Island, Bras further initiated several transactions without the consent or authorization of the account owner, “including transfers to his wife’s account, and multiple wire transfers to a bank account in Portugal.”

At the time, the 78-year-old Santander Bank customer, who was residing at an assisted living facility, had a conservator appointed by a Massachusetts court.

Bras, who has already pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated identity theft and mail fraud, will be handed his prison sentence on September 15th.

“He [Bras] faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison for mail fraud, and a mandatory consecutive term of two years in prison for aggravated identity theft.”

The Delaware-headquartered Santander Bank is the 28th-largest lender in the US with a little over $97 billion in domestic assets.

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