A New York man who served as caretaker for his elderly neighbor has admitted to stealing nearly $142,000 in pension payments that kept flowing after the neighbor died.

Danilo Pesce, 60, of Pelham pleaded guilty to fourth-degree grand larceny in Albany County Court, New York Attorney General Letitia James says.

The neighbor, Jack Lee Morgan, was a retired Pelham school district teacher who collected a pension from the New York State Teachers’ Retirement System.

Morgan died in 2020 with no living beneficiary, so the payments should have stopped.

But nobody told the retirement system about the death, and it kept sending $3,497 a month into Morgan’s bank account.

While working as Morgan’s caretaker, Pesce had been added to the bank account and to the deed of Morgan’s Pelham home.

Starting on March 17th, 2020, less than a month after Morgan died, Pesce regularly pulled money out of the account, the attorney general’s office says.

He used the cash on upkeep and renovations at Morgan’s home, where he and his wife were living part-time.

In total, Pesce took $141,968.

He has paid $147,000 back to the retirement system, which includes $6,000 in interest.

Says James,

“Danilo Pesce took advantage of the retirement system that thousands of hard-working New York teachers rely on… This heartless theft should serve as a reminder that my office will not tolerate anyone who breaks the law to steal from their neighbors.”

Pesce was arrested on July 30th of this year.

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The post New York Man Steals $141,968 in Pension Payments Meant for Deceased Elderly Neighbor for Over Three Years appeared first on The Daily Hodl.

A former Indiana letter carrier has been sentenced to six and a half years in federal prison for stealing checks from the mail in a $34 million bank fraud scheme that hit about 6,500 victims.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana says Destinee Ruffin, 29, of Indianapolis also got two years of supervised release after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and theft of mail.

Ruffin worked at the Bacon Station Post Office in Indianapolis, where she took checks from incoming and outgoing mail between April of 2020 and May of 2022 and sold them to co-conspirators.

The buyers changed the payee names and ran the checks through the bank accounts of people who handed over debit cards, PINs or online banking logins.

Ruffin supplied John Young, 24, with more than $12 million in stolen checks and sold Tony McMullen, 36, more than $235,000 worth.

The case began in the spring of 2020 when a Bacon Station customer complained that an Economic Impact Payment check never arrived, and more complaints led agents to Ruffin’s route.

Investigators later mailed controlled Treasury checks with recorded serial numbers and traced them back to her.

A search of her home, vehicle and devices in April of 2024 turned up thousands of unsold stolen checks worth more than $20 million, with stolen mail piled in closets, in corners and even in the bathroom.

One victim found out her $1,618 payment to keep her retired husband’s health insurance never arrived when she showed up for surgery and was told her coverage had been terminated, forcing the procedure to be canceled.

Says U.S. Attorney Tom Wheeler,

“Destinee Ruffin’s crimes were not isolated acts of theft; they represented a sweeping scheme that touched thousands of households and eroded a fundamental public trust. By stealing millions of dollars’ worth of checks from the mail, Ruffin and her co-conspirators disrupted critical benefits, jeopardized family finances, and caused real harm to individuals who depended on timely delivery for essential needs.”

Ruffin was also ordered to pay $121,270.30 in restitution.

Three of her co-conspirators have already been sentenced, and Young is set to be sentenced on December 3rd.

The Daily Hodl reported on Ruffin’s guilty plea in October.

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The post USPS Insider Who Stole Checks in $34,000,000 Fraud Scheme Hitting About 6,500 Victims Gets Six and a Half Years in Prison appeared first on The Daily Hodl.

Federal prosecutors have secured a guilty plea from a Washington resident accused of running a years-long romance scam that drained over $333,000 from a Portland victim.

Rithy Ham, 45, of Vancouver, Washington, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering, says the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon.

The scheme ran from September 2020 through May 2024 and relied on invented identities of two women who supposedly needed cash for daily bills, nursing school costs and escape from sex trafficking.

“Believing the women were real and in danger, the victim sent money on multiple occasions.”

The victim sent repeated payments after receiving messages from both Ham and the fabricated profiles.

One transfer of $36,872.35 occurred in November 2022, and another $20,922 came from a retirement account in March 2023.

Ham and his wife controlled the accounts that received the funds, and part of the proceeds paid for an $18,500 check to his wife.

“In total, Ham stole $333,249.52 from the victim, much of it from the victim’s retirement savings.”

Under the plea deal, Ham must repay the full amount and faces up to 20 years in prison on the wire fraud charge and up to 10 years on the money laundering count.

The FBI conducted the investigation.

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The post Washington Resident Pleads Guilty to Wire Fraud in $333,249 Romance Scam appeared first on The Daily Hodl.