Nutley Bank Worker Stole Dead Customer’s Retirement Benefits: Feds

NUTLEY, NJ — An employee of a bank in Nutley has been accused of stealing federal retirement benefits that were placed into a deceased customer’s account, prosecutors announced Wednesday.

Jorge Nova, 35, of Passaic, has been charged with wire fraud in connection with the scheme, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The specific bank was not named in the criminal indictment.

Prosecutors released the following statement about the allegations against Nova:

“In 2014, Nova was an employee at a commercial bank in Nutley, New Jersey, where a customer received Social Security Administration (SSA) retirement benefits via direct deposit. The Social Security Administration was not notified of the beneficiary’s death and continued to deposit retirement benefits into the beneficiary’s bank account for more than four years, until October 2018. Nova fraudulently obtained funds from the beneficiary’s account by causing debit cards to be issued to himself in the beneficiary’s name, which he then used to drain the retirement benefits from the beneficiary’s bank account. Nova also registered new accounts with a money service provider in the name of the deceased beneficiary and withdrew money from a second bank account held in the beneficiary’s name. Nova fraudulently obtained more than $105,000 intended for the deceased beneficiary.”

Nova appeared in federal court on Wednesday and was on a $100,000 unsecured bond. The count of wire fraud is punishable by a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a maximum $1 million fine, prosecutors said.

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