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Ramon Herrera, 37, persuaded unwitting more than three dozen clients to sign blank withdrawal slips, which he then filled out to pull cash from their accounts in the form of cashier’s checks, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said.
Herrera then applied the checks to accounts that he and a family member controlled, she said.
Herrera took a deal from the government -- pleading guilty to wire fraud -- rather than go to trial after the FBI caught onto him.
He must serve just about all of the plea-bargained term because there’s no parole in the federal prison system.
U.S. District Judge Katharine S. Hayden Judge Hayden also sentenced him to three years of supervised release.
Attorney Honig credited special agents of the FBI with the investigation leading to the plea and sentence, secured by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer S. Kozar of her Economic Crimes Unit in Newark.
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