Santander Bank in Weymouth. Photo via Google Maps.
A former teller at the Santander Bank branch in Weymouth pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court to taking part in a scheme to impersonate bank customers and withdraw more than $800,000 from their accounts.
Carlyann Amos, 21, of Randolph, pleaded guilty on Oct. 3 in U.S. District Court in Boston to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and one count of aiding and abetting aggravated identity theft. She will be sentenced on Jan. 7, 2020.
Amos worked at the branch on 51 Pleasant St. when she joined the scheme involving four other people, according to court documents. A LinkedIn profile in her name indicates Amos began working at the Weymouth branch in May 2017.
One of the co-conspirators recruited Amos for the scheme in December 2017. A second person then communicated with Amos regarding how and when the fraudulent transactions would take place. Court documents indicate that investigators know the identities of some, but not all, of the co-conspirators. No other names have not been made public, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
The fraud began on Dec. 30, 2017, when a third co-conspirator entered the bank and approached Amos with fraudulent identification in the name of a Santander Bank customer. According to court documents, Amos knew this person was not the customer.
The person, identified as a man in an FBI affidavit, requested official bank checks from two of the customer’s home equity line of credit accounts for $230,000 and $120,000. This person also requested $9,000 in cash. Amos processed the three transactions.
About two weeks later, a fourth co-conspirator entered Santander Bank and showed Amos fraudulent identification for another Santander Bank customer. This person, also identified as a man, requested funds from a home equity line of credit: checks for $280,000 and $167,325, as well as $9,000 in cash.
A total of $815,325 was taken from the two customers, who were not involved in the scheme, according to court documents.
FBI Special Agent Dominic Gross and a Boston police detective met with Amos at a Santander Bank branch in Quincy in February 2018. According to Gross’s affidavit, Amos acknowledged taking part in the scheme.
“Amos admitted that she had known what she was doing was wrong, and knew she risked getting caught by the bank or law enforcement,” Gross wrote in his affidavit.
After the December 2017 transaction, second co-conspirator told Amos she would receive $5,000 for each set of transactions. In the week after the second incident, the first co-conspirator gave Amos $2,000. She told Gross and the Boston detective that she did not receive any other funds. Amos was arrested in July 2019.
Judge Douglas P. Woodlock scheduled sentencing for Jan. 7. On the charge of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, Amos could be sentenced up to 30 years in prison, five years of supervised release and a fine of up to $1 million, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office in Boston. The charge of aggravated identity theft provides for a mandatory sentence of two years, to be served consecutively to any other imposed sentence, one year of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.
