A former Wells Fargo banker convicted of being the inside operative for a fraud ring that pilfered more than half a million dollars from a Los Angeles bank and its customers is expected to be sentenced to federal prison on Thursday.
Michael Hester, 36, of Los Angeles was among eight defendants — including four bank employees — charged in two indictments returned by a federal grand jury last year.
Hester admitted in a plea agreement to accessing the bank’s database to steal customers’ identifying information, including dates of birth, account numbers, driver’s license numbers and Social Security numbers. He admitted selling the information to Ronald Charles Reed, 70, of Inglewood, the ringleader of the scheme. Also known as “Disco Ronnie,” Reed was sentenced last month to 7 1/2 years in prison.
In addition to the prison time, Reed was also ordered to pay Wells Fargo more than $580,000 in restitution, which is roughly the amount the bank lost in the scheme.
Hester pleaded guilty to felony counts of bank fraud and aggravated identity theft.
Prosecutors are asking that he be sentenced to 41 months’ imprisonment on the bank fraud count, followed by a mandatory consecutive term of two years for identity theft. They also want U.S. District Judge Fernando Olguin to order restitution and a period of supervised release following prison.
Hester’s role “was essential to the success of the bank fraud conspiracy,” prosecutors wrote in court papers. “Without a bank insider, the fraud could not have occurred.”
Hester stole information from 112 victims, leading to combined losses of about $847,000, authorities said.
Prosecutors said Reed provided the stolen information to “runners” — some still unidentified — who used fake IDs to impersonate bank customers and made substantial cash withdrawals from their accounts.
The runners also used some of the customers’ accounts to deposit worthless checks and receive cash back at Wells Fargo branches across Southern California and in other states, including Minnesota and Nevada.
The other ex-Wells Fargo employees involved in the scheme have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.
—City News Service