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Lamar Melhado, 32, of the Bronx will have to serve just about all of the plea-bargained sentence handed down in U.S. District Court in Camden on Monday, March 7, because there's no parole in the federal prison system.
Melhado received photos and screenshots of customers’ information and signatures from Mount Laurel bank call center employee Jamere Hill-Birdsong of Gloucester City and some of his co-workers, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger said.
After using the stolen materials to produce phony IDs, the conspirators sent various runners into bank branches to withdraw the victims' money, the U.S. attorney said.
They also stole customers’ cash through online transfers, he 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.
Melhado took a deal from the government rather than face trial, pleading guilty last October in U.S. District Court in Camden to conspiracy to commit bank fraud.
Federal authorities didn't say whether the plea deal required Melhado to testify against Hill-Birdsong, against whom charges remain pending. They did say that Melhado agreed to make $604,000 full restitution -- and forfeit $151,024 -- as part of the agreement.
In addition to the prison sentence, U.S. District Judge Renée Marie Bumb sentenced Melhado to five years of supervised release.
Sellinger credited agents of the FBI’s South Jersey Resident Agency in Philadelphia with the investigation leading to the indictment, plea and sentence secured by Assistant U.S. Attorney Diana Vondra Carrig of his Camden office.
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