Joseph Graziano Jr., Bank Embezzlement, Pennsylvania 2011

Bank Embezzlement Rocks Pittsburgh

A Pittsburgh man has pleaded guilty to bank embezzlement and multiple fraud schemes, leaving a trail of financial devastation in his wake. Joseph Graziano Jr., 29, pleaded guilty to six counts in two cases before Senior United States District Judge Terrrence F. McVerry.

Graziano’s crimes began in 2008 when he was employed by Bank of New York Mellon as a Corporate Trust Administrator. In this position, he had access to wire funds in and out of accounts held by the bank’s corporate trust customers. He used this access to embezzel $2,441,294.35 from Bank of New York Mellon by wiring funds from the corporate trust accounts into his own bank accounts.

The defendant also engaged in schemes to defraud five other banks, including Dollar Bank, First Niagara Bank, First Commonwealth Bank, Ameriserv Financial Bank, and PNC Bank. He submitted fraudulent loan documents to induce the banks to extend credit to him. Following the bank embezzlement and the bank frauds, Graziano began engaging in a new and separate scheme to defraud through the online marketplace www.ebay.com.

Graziano defrauded eBay buyers by offering personal electronics for sale on eBay. After the buyers submitted payment to the defendant’s PayPal account, he sent the buyers empty boxes, falsely claiming that the boxes’ contents had been stolen during shipping. The defendant’s crimes continued even after he was indicted and released on pretrial conditions.

While on pretrial release, Graziano engaged in a conspiracy to purchase counterfeit United States currency through a source in Uganda with the intent to pass the counterfeit currency at retail locations in the United States. He used a stolen identity to set up a mailbox to receive the shipments of counterfeit currency from Uganda and also attempted to open a credit card and bank accounts using the stolen identity.

Judge McVerry has scheduled sentencing for May 22, 2015. The law provides for a mandatory minimum sentence of two years, a total sentence of 90 years in prison, a fine of $3,000,000, or both. Under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, the actual sentence imposed is based upon the seriousness of the offense and the prior criminal history, if any, of the defendant.

Pending sentencing, Judge McVerry ordered that the defendant remain detained. Assistant United States Attorney Tonya Sulia Goodman is prosecuting these cases on behalf of the government. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, United States Postal Inspection Service, Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation Division, Homeland Security Investigations, and the United States Secret Service conducted the investigations that led to the prosecution of Graziano.

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