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A former Bank of America employee from Abington pleaded guilty to embezzling $1.5 million from a client company and using a portion of those funds to purchase luxury items.
Waqas Ali, 31, pleaded guilty last week to wire fraud and unlawful monetary transactions, six weeks after being charged by federal prosecutors in Boston. Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 1.
Ali was the bank’s client relationship manager for the company affected by the scheme. Ali opened a checking account in the company’s name without its knowledge or authorization, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office, and fraudulently transferred over $1.5 million between September 2016 and July 2017 from the victim company’s accounts to the fraudulent account.
Ali used more than $600,000 of those funds to pay for luxury items, including a Porsche SUV and products from Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdales, Christian Louboutin and Tag Heuer, according to the U.S. attorney.
