A former bank manager has confessed to stealing money from a customer's accounts, even after the customer passed away.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, James Gomes, aged 43, pleaded guilty to wire fraud that affected a financial institution.

Gomes, who was employed as a branch manager at an unnamed international bank, devised a plan to take hundreds of thousands of dollars from the victim's accounts. Between January and April of 2020, Gomes accessed the accounts more than twelve times without permission. He set up an email address in the victim's name and used it to enroll the accounts in the bank’s online banking services. Gomes also linked his personal phone number to the victim’s online banking.

With full control of the victim's online banking profile, Gomes transferred a total of $208,939 from the customer’s accounts into his personal accounts at other banks and his own investment account.

To cover up his actions, Gomes used the fake email account to send messages to his work email, making it appear that the victim was instructing the bank to make the transfers. He continued this scheme even after the victim’s death on April 6th, 2020.

James Gomes faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and a fine of $1 million. The bank has absorbed the losses to reimburse the victim’s estate.

In conclusion, the former bank manager's deceitful actions have led to serious legal consequences, impacting both the financial institution and the victim's family.