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He used that information to steal more than $520,000, according to U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger.
Jamere Hill-Birdsong, 33, of Mount Holly, pleaded guilty on Tuesday, Nov. 1 to an indictment charging him with conspiracy to commit bank fraud, Sellinger said.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
From August 2016 through August 2017, Hill-Birdsong conspired with Lamar Melhado, of the Bronx, and others to defraud a Mount Laurel bank.
Hill-Birdsong worked inside the call center and recruited other call center employees to participate in the scheme by stealing the identities and account information of customers who called into the bank’s call center.
The conspirator bank employees would then take photographs or screenshots of the bank customer’s account information and signatures and would send that information to Hill-Birdsong and Melhado, Sellinger said.
The conspirators then had phony identification documents made in the names of the bank customers, and used various runners to go into bank branches and make unauthorized cash withdrawals. The conspirators also used the stolen identity information to conduct unauthorized online transfers of moneys from the customer’s accounts.
The conspiracy to commit bank fraud charge to which Hill-Birdsong pleaded guilty carries a maximum potential penalty of 30 years in prison.
In his plea agreement, Hill-Birdsong agreed to make restitution for the full amount of the loss, which is estimated at $523,000.
Sentencing is scheduled for March 7, 2023.
Melhado previously pleaded guilty to his role in the conspiracy and was sentenced in March 2022 to four years in prison.
Sellinger credited agents of the FBI’s South Jersey Resident Agency, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Jacqueline Maguire in Philadelphia.
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