Melrose Man Pleads Guilty To $375K Bank Fraud

MELROSE, MA — A bank teller supervisor pleaded guilty Friday in federal court in Worcester for his role in defrauding his employer out of $375,000, according to U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy.

Pablo Rocha, 32, of Melrose, pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud. U.S. Senior District Court. Judge Timothy S. Hillman scheduled sentencing for Nov. 16, 2023. Rocha was charged on June 26, 2023.

Between July and December 2022, Rocha worked as a bank teller supervisor at a federally insured bank in Massachusetts.

Prosecutors say Rocha used his access to the bank’s vault to steal cash, then covered his tracks by writing false entries in the bank’s records and processing fake transactions in the bank’s electronic records system to make it appear that the cash had been shipped to the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

Rocha could face up to 30 years in prison, five years of supervised release, restitution and a fine of up to $1 million.