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Lamar Melhado, 32, used screenshots of customers’ information and signatures that were supplied to him and others by Jamere Hill-Birdsong of Gloucester City, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said Thursday.
Hill-Birdson, who worked for a call center at a Mount Laurel bank, recruited co-workers to take photos or screenshots of customers’ information and signatures and then pass them on to him and Melhado, she said.
After using the stolen materials to produce phony IDs, they sent various runners into bank branches to withdraw the victims' money, the U.S. attorney said.
They also stole customers’ cash through online transfers, she said.
An indictment returned by a grand jury in Camden charged Hill-Birdsong and Melhado with various counts of bank fraud, conspiracy and aggravated identity theft.
The charges against Hill-Birdson are still pending. Melhado took a deal from the government rather than risk trial, however, pleading guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Camden to conspiracy to commit bank fraud.
Federal authorities didn't say whether the plea agreement required Melhado to testify against his accused accomplice. They did say he agreed to make $604,000 full restitution as part of the deal.
U.S. District Judge Renée Marie Bumb scheduled sentencing for March 7, 2022.
Honig credited agents of the FBI’s South Jersey Resident Agency in Philadelphia with the investigation leading to the indictment, secured by Assistant U.S. Attorney Diana Vondra Carrig of her Camden office.
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