Bank calls Fraud Squad

REPUBLIC Bank Limited has called in the Fraud Squad to investigate three separate reports of fraud and attempted fraud at the company totalling over $3 million, reliable sources told Newsday yesterday. As a consequence of one of the reports, one worker was fired, Republic Bank’s communication manager Anna Maria Garcia-Brooks said as she confirmed all three reports to Newsday yesterday.  Garcia-Brooks, however, said there was no loss of customer funds. In one instance, sources said, the perpetrators obtained US$282,606 (TT$1,695,636) and US$12,500 (TT$75,000). An attempt to obtain a further US$225,315 (TT$1,351,890) was blocked, sources said. 

According to sources, the US$282,606 was made payable to a man and was drawn on the account of Columbia University in New York. The cheque was opened in the account of JP Morgan Chase Bank, Syracuse, New York. This is alleged to have occurred on August 8. The fraudsters got away with these funds and sources said it is not clear how the huge sum was obtained, but it is believed to have been wire-transferred. Also, on August 28 there was a failed attempt to obtain US$225,315. The cheque was a Medicare one and was made payable to Northern Construction Limited (NCL). Sources told Newsday that particular cheque was not cleared because it was discovered to have been forged. These two incidents occurred at Republic Bank’s Valpark, Valsayn, branch and the bank made a report earlier this month. Three people; an employee of the Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago Limited (TSTT), a La Romaine businessman and a Marabella man were detained for questioning by the police in connection with the two reports, but were later released.

The Marabella man is said to be a key player in last year’s $5 million fraud at the Trinidad and Tobago Unit Trust Corporation (UTC), where the perpetrators in that incident stole the identities of unit holders and were able to obtain large sums of cash at other financial institutions. In another report to the Fraud Squad this month, sources said Republic Bank officials at the Promenade Centre, Independence Square branch reported that a worker cleared a $US12,500 Bank of America cheque. Sources said this was done after the worker cleared the cheque by altering a deposit slip which stated “no hold.” The amount was then credited into the worker’s account in the United States, after which sources said it was reportedly wired to an unknown company in Nigeria. The worker in that incident was subsequently dismissed. It is believed that the same people are responsible for the million dollar wire transfer fraud committed at TSTT, where in one instance over $20 million was obtained, while an attempt to process three illegal wire transfers totalling some $4.5 million was blocked. Several TSTT workers were quizzed.