Junchi Ma trial: CBA teller stole dead woman’s money, court hears

A CBA teller stole $500,000 from a dead woman’s account before the bank told the same teller to deal with her lawyers, a court has heard.

A Commonwealth Bank teller stole $500,000 from a dead woman’s account before the bank assigned the same teller to deal with her lawyers when they inquired about the missing money, a jury has heard.

Junchi Ma, 31, of Pymble, is facing trial in the NSW District Court after pleading not guilty to a string of charges including dealing with the proceeds of crime.

The trial has heard Ma’s ex-girlfriend, Angie Tsai, was working as a teller for CBA in Sydney when she stole $500,000 from the dead woman in 2014 and also stole $2 million from another customer who had gone overseas in 2015.

Angie Tsai outside the Downing Centre.

Junchi Ma (left) was formerly in a relationship with Tsai. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Damian Shaw

Ma is not charged in connection to the 2014 withdrawal, but prosecutors have said they expect Tsai to give evidence that he was keen on using some of the money from the 2015 withdrawal to buy a Ferrari.

The court heard Tsai spoke to the dead woman’s estate lawyers when they made inquiries about the $500,000 and that she made up a “cock and bull story” to them about what had happened to the money by claiming she was a deposits and insurance specialist in a letter.

Defence barrister Winston Terracini SC, for Ma, asked CBA senior manager of group investigations Greg Borg: “She’s an employee of the bank … so she steals the money and the bank gives the case back to her to handle?” to which Mr Borg replied: “Yes, unfortunately in this incident that was the case.”

Junchi Ma. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

Angie Tsai. Picture: Seven News

Mr Borg said she had no authority to send a letter to the dead woman’s lawyers.

“The correspondence initially went to the deceased estates area and somehow their communication got back to Ms Tsai,” he said.

“When the deceased estate area noticed the $500,000 discrepancy, instead of escalating it further they escalated it to the perpetrator of the fraud.”

Mr Terracini said there must have been someone within CBA in addition to Tsai who knew about what was going on.

The barrister asked Mr Borg if he had made any inquiries about a man called David or Daniel Ong, who the court was told had worked as a branch manager.

“I want you to assume that he was living with this woman until as recently as last Friday before she was put into jail,” Mr Terracini said. “Do you understand that he was a bank manager around about the time of this incident?”

Mr Borg said he was unaware.

The trial continues.