List of NSW’s NAB, CBA, ABN Amro Clearing bank staff guilty of financial crimes named
They are the faces responsible for NSW’s missing millions, all busted for dodgy deals while working in some of the country’s biggest banks. Now their names and crimes can be revealed.
Police & Courts
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They are meant to be the experts we trust with our money but these dodgy banking staff were abusing their positions to line their own pockets with cash taken from customers.
From executives at the high levels of the bank to customer service specialists, financial crimes have been perpetrated at all levels of the banking system.
Despite the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research reporting fraud has decreased by 11.5 per cent this year in NSW, a specialised task force has made a number of arrests.
In May 2019, the NSW Police Financial Crimes Squad formed Strike Force Kerribee to investigate fraudulent activity against a financial institution. The strike force has arrested and charged eight people since December.
However, fraud experts believe financial fraud is harder to prosecute due to a lack of proof when compared to traditional theft crimes. Experts also note the police lack the resources to fight such a pervasive and global crime.
In the case of many of the crooked bankers below, it is evident it can take years to prosecute financial crimes – but police didn’t let the delay dissuade them.
From high-flying corrupt executives to fraudulent financial advisors, these are the state’s dodgiest banking staff busted for financial crime.
Rosemary Rogers
A former high-ranking bank executive defrauded one of Australia’s biggest banks out of millions of dollars in a kickback scam over several years.
Rosemary Rogers used her role as the chief of staff to NAB chief executive, Andrew Thorburn, to approve inflated invoices with very little detail to receive more than $5.5 million in staggering gifts.
Rogers dishonestly approved $12.34 million in payments to the executive services firm owned by her “bestie” and got luxury kickbacks in return, including a BMW, a boat, lavish overseas holidays, and $1.85 million for a home in Melbourne.
In one instance, her alleged accomplice arranged an eight-person holiday to the US for Rogers and her family which cost around $620,000.
After years, the fraud was finally uncovered in 2017 when an anonymous whistleblower sent a letter to NAB disclosing Rogers’s ill-gotten gains.
Rogers pleaded guilty to 33 charges related to the fraud, including corruptly receiving a benefit and obtaining a financial gain by deception. She was convicted and sentenced to eight years in prison with a non-parole period of four years and nine months.
Read the full story here.
Angie Tsai
A former bank employee stole millions of dollars from customers by siphoning money out of their accounts and into her own.
Commonwealth Bank customer service specialist Angie Tsai withdrew $500,000 from the account of a customer only days after he died in 2014 and stole more than $2 million from another customer who was overseas in 2015.
She even issued a false document stating the half a million dollars missing from a dead client’s account had been reinstated. In total, the court heard Tsai abused her position as a bank employee to take $3.5 million from customers and fund her lavish lifestyle.
Tsai’s thefts were only uncovered five years later when a customer realised the bulk of his funds had been withdrawn from his account while he was living overseas.
Judge John Pickering SC said white collar crimes were difficult to compare, but ultimately determined the abuse of her position and the amount stolen warranted a serious sentence.
“You can’t seriously allow people who are employed by banks to steal $3.5 million and be treated lightly,” he said.
Tsai pleaded guilty to three counts of dishonestly obtaining a financial advantage by deception and falsely using documents to gain advantage. Last month, she was sentenced to three years and three months in prison with a non-parole period of two years.
Read the full story here.
Aleksandra Frizell
Customers got the opposite of what they asked for when they engaged a financial advisor and mortgage broker who took their money and left them bereft.
Aleksandra Frizell set up a sophisticated scam to defraud $215,000 over three and a half years from a number of clients around NSW. She orchestrated faulty home loans and used clients’ private financial information to set up fraudulent credit cards.
Using their trust in her position as a financial advisor, Frizell preyed on 14 victims from across the Central Coast, Hunter and Bangalow, near Byron Bay.
She used their hard-earned money to feed her codeine addiction and to buy luxury items like four pairs of Christian Louboutin shoes worth $8000.
Magistrate Robert Stone said Frizell’s actions showed the “(e)xploitation and manipulation of these people purely for greed” and noted the lasting trauma on the victims, some of whom had considered Frizell a friend.
Frizell pleaded guilty to a raft of fraud charges including dishonestly obtaining financial advantage, making false documents, and dealing with identification information with intent to commit an indictable offence.
She was convicted and sentenced to four years imprisonment with a non-parole period of two years and three months.
Read the full story here.
Aurnob Imtiaz
A banker admitted to helping to conceal more than half a million dollars of stolen funds in order to receive a fat pay check.
Aurnob Imtiaz, who was employed as a finance analyst and accountant for Dutch bank ABN Amro Clearing, helped to hide more than $500,000 which was stolen from Real Housewives cast member Krissy Marsh during a house settlement.
The police facts show he helped to fraudulently obtain the money by intercepting emails related to the settlement and changing the bank details. According to police facts, he was paid $40,000 for his role in the scam.
Imtiaz pleaded guilty to two charges of knowingly dealing with the proceeds of crime and one of intentionally making a false statement in a statutory declaration.
However, he was unable to be sentenced for his crime because The Daily Telegraph understands he died suddenly in May this year.
Read the full story here.
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