NOW YOU SEE IT, NOW YOU DON’T: FBI ARRESTS BANK TELLER PLAYING “THREE CARD MONTE” WITH ELDERLY VICTIM’S DEPOSITS!

NEWARK, NJ—Weysan Dun, Special Agent In Charge of the FBI’s Newark Field Office, announces the arrest of Dana Samarelli, age 27, a bank teller at the Hoboken, New Jersey branch of North Fork Bank. Samarelli was arrested early this morning at her residence at 294 Lincoln Avenue, Secaucus, New Jersey, and charged with one count of bank fraud and acting as a principal in that crime.

The alleged fraud occurred between September and December of 2007, but came into focus on March 19, 2008 when representatives of North Fork Bank questioned Samarelli about the missing funds. Samarelli explained that the victim, identified in the criminal complaint as “E.E.”, gave her money totaling $540,913.29 “as a gift”, according to the complaint, which she then deposited into a joint account in the name of both the victim and Samarelli at Washington Mutual Bank (WaMu) in Bayonne, New Jersey. Samarelli maintained that she opened the joint account at insistence of the victim. However, the victim told the FBI that not only was he completely unaware of the WaMu account, but that he never gave Samarelli consent to open that or any other joint account and that he gave her his checks for the exclusive purpose of deposit into his individual North Fork Bank account in Hoboken where Samarelli worked.

Upon further investigation, the FBI learned Samarelli may not have been completely truthful in her explanation. For example, on April 2, 2007, Samarelli approached a co-worker at North Fork Bank and asked if that individual knew any other bank employees at a different bank who would allow Samarelli to open a joint account with the victim without the victim being present “to help E.E. pay bills,” according to the complaint. That day, the North Fork Bank co-worker and Samrelli traveled to the Bayonne Branch of WaMu where the co-worker knew the bank manager. The bank manager agreed to have a WaMu bank teller open the joint account without the presence of E.E., despite a strict WaMu bank policy against this practice.

At this point, Samarelli allegedly changed her story a little more, listing her employment on the account application as “Louise and Jerry’s” – a tavern in Hoboken, and misrepresented the cell phone number of an acquaintance as her own to the bank teller. (Samarelli was never employed at “Louise and Jerry’s.) Samarelli allegedly “thickened” the plot by explaining to the bank teller that E.E. was too old to come to the bank himself and that she would take any forms requiring his signature back to him, again in violation of bank policy. That day, the joint account was opened.

Between April and June of 2007, the victim, E.E., entered the Hoboken North Fork Bank and provided Samarelli five checks totaling $540,913.29 for deposit into what he believed would be his personal, individual North Fork Bank account. But the checks never made it into the account. Coincidentally, on or about May 20, 2007, a check in the amount of $200,000 drawn on the joint WaMu account and made out to cash was deposited into a PNC Bank personal account in the name of Dana Samarelli. The same thing occurred again on or about June 5, 2007 –only this time it was in the amount of $345,914.49. Also, Samarelli allegedly caused a wire in the amount of $133,650 to be transferred from the joint WaMu account to Ray Catena Aston Martin on or about August 13, 2007 for the purchase of an Aston Martin automobile.

FBI agents determined that the acquaintance and owner of the cell phone number Samarelli used on the joint account application at WaMu never gave his permission to use him as a reference or to use his cell phone number on the application, nor did he ever know Samarelli to work at Louise and Jerry’s.

A criminal complaint is merely an accusation. Despite this accusation, every defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Samarelli is scheduled to make an initial appearance today at 2:00 PM before the Honorable Madeline Cox Arleo, United States. Magistrate Judge. If convicted, Samarelli faces a maximum of up to 30 years imprisonment and a $1,000,000 fine. Samarelli is the only individual charged in this matter.

Special Agent in Charge Weysan Dun commends the FBI agents and the officials at both North Fork Bank and Washington Mutual Bank (now J.P. Morgan Chase) for their assistance in this matter. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Erez Liebermann.

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