Daniel Jermaine Usher, 26, of South Los Angeles, is going down for preying on elderly bank customers while they withdrew cash — not with a weapon, but with a memory and a nerve. A federal judge convicted him on three counts of aggravated identity theft after a two-day bench trial in Santa Ana. Usher didn’t break into accounts. He didn’t hack systems. He stood close, watched, and waited — then stole.
U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney found Usher guilty based on evidence that he engaged in ‘shoulder surfing’ at Bank of America ATMs across Los Angeles and Orange County. He loitered near machines, silently memorizing PINs as elderly customers — many of them minorities — entered their codes. When they walked away without properly ending their sessions, Usher stepped in, re-entered the stolen PINs, and drained cash from accounts not his own.
The victims were vulnerable — two required translators during the trial. None had authorized Usher or any third party to access their accounts. Each fraudulent withdrawal was a violation not just of law, but of trust. Judge Carney ruled that Usher ‘piggybacked off of the victims’ use of their ATM cards’ and misrepresented himself as the rightful account holder to siphon funds.
Last month, Usher admitted to five counts of bank fraud, a plea that paved the way for the identity theft convictions. The Justice Department announced the verdict the same day it unsealed actions against more than 250 defendants nationwide for targeting the elderly in financial scams — a grim reminder that predators like Usher are part of a broader epidemic.
Usher now faces a statutory maximum of 30 years in federal prison for each bank fraud count, plus a mandatory consecutive two-year sentence for each of the three aggravated identity theft counts. Sentencing is scheduled for May 21. Time will tell how much time he ultimately serves, but the crime itself was swift, silent, and sickeningly simple.
The investigation was led by the United States Secret Service. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Paul C. LeBlanc and Daniel S. Lim of the Santa Ana Branch Office. As ATMs remain vulnerable to low-tech theft, officials warn the public to stay vigilant — especially when someone’s watching just a little too closely.
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Key Facts
- State: California
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: Official Source ↗
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