August 10 – Earlier today, in federal court in Brooklyn, Peter Persaud, a former personal banker at JP Morgan Chase Bank, was sentenced by United States District Judge Eric N. Vitaliano to 48 months’ imprisonment for aggravated identity theft in connection with access device fraud. Persaud pleaded guilty to these charges on March 7, 2017.
Richard P. Donoghue, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, announced the sentence.
“Persaud abused his position by victimizing unsuspecting customers, and will now pay the penalty for his fraudulent conduct,” stated United States Attorney Donoghue. “This Office will continue to work closely with our law enforcement and industry partners to vigorously prosecute those who undermine the integrity of the financial system.” Mr. Donoghue expressed his grateful appreciation to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office and the New York City Police Department, which jointly investigated the case.
According to the publicly filed documents and facts presented at sentencing, from 2011 to 2015, Persaud sold personal identifying information and account information that belonged to bank customers to others, or used it himself, in order to make unauthorized withdrawals from the accounts. Persaud’s scheme was exposed when he sold this information to a confidential informant in 2014 and to an undercover law enforcement officer in 2015. Persaud told the undercover officer that he had to “take it easy” because Chase might notice he had accessed all of the bank accounts that “got hit.” Persaud offered to sell the undercover officer identifying information for a client’s bank account that contained more than $180,000.
The case is being handled by the Office’s National Security and Cybercrime Section. Assistant United States Attorneys Tiana Demas and Andrey Spektor are in charge of the prosecution.
The Defendant:
PETER PERSAUD
Age: 28
Queens, New YorkE.D.N.Y. Docket No. 15-CR-0462 (ENV)
Source: U. S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District New York