Latest ID Theft Target: Mayor Bloomberg
Someone at the bank noticed when two fraudulent checks for a total of more than $400,000 were drawn against New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s personal account. But an earlier fraudulent Internet withdrawal for a mere $10,000 reportedly went undetected until the subsequent scam was investigated.
Two New Jersey men have now been charged with stealing, or attempting to steal, from Bloomberg’s personal accounts, according to the New York Times and Newark Star-Ledger.
The Times says Odalis Bostic, who has been indicted on a charge of attempted second-degree grand larceny, created a company, set up accounts in its name at two banks, and then deposited forged checks for $190,000 and $230,000 into the respective accounts in June. Both checks were drawn on the mayor’s personal account at a different bank, and were issued in the name of the mayor’s financial manager. Because of the size of the checks, however, the two banks into which they were deposited held the checks, determined that they were forged, and contacted authorities.
The other case involves a man who allegedly actually stole $10,000 from the mayor’s personal bank account in May, by moving the money online into an Internet brokerage account. Charles Nelson has been charged with grand larceny in the third degree and identity theft in the first degree
Perhaps not surprisingly, for a businessman said to be worth as much as $11 billion or more, this is not the first time that Bloomberg reportedly has been targeted by thieves. The mayor previously cooperated in a 2001 case against a Kazakhstan man accused of having attempted to extort money from a Bloomberg company.
A spokesman for the mayor declined to comment on the latest prosecutions, which are being pursued by the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
