A Cleveland federal jury has convicted a former Northeast Ohio bank employee in a sweeping elder fraud case that prosecutors say turned routine bank access into a personal siphon for roughly $2 million in customer funds.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Ohio, 36-year-old Yue Cao was found guilty after a five-day trial on 10 counts of bank fraud, four counts of aggravated identity theft and one count of money laundering. Prosecutors said Cao, who worked as a quantitative analytics manager at an Ohio-based bank, used an offshore service to generate more than 100 email addresses, secretly enrolled elderly customers in online banking, rerouted their statements and then moved money into accounts he controlled.
WOIO reported that the victims were between 90 and 103 years old and lived in several states, including Ohio (Canton), New York, and Pennsylvania. WKYC noted prosecutors’ claim that some of the stolen money ended up in options trading and other brokerage activity.
How prosecutors say the scheme worked
In court, prosecutors laid out what they described as a careful, step-by-step inside job. By creating email accounts that he alone controlled, Cao allegedly enrolled elderly customers in online banking without their knowledge, then changed how and where statements were delivered so nothing suspicious showed up in their regular mail…