Ex-manager of the US bank Citigroup Gary Foster faced Brooklyn Federal Court on a charge of embezzling over $19 mln from bank accounts, Associated Press says. In case Foster is established he will face up to 30 years of imprisonment.
According to Isabelle Kirshner, Forster’s lawyer, the convict pleads not guilty. Following the results of the court hearing Foster was released on bail of $800 000.
Foster was arrested June 26 at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. Foster was travelling in South-Eastern Asia and returned when he learned the government was investigating him, Kirshner said after the hearing.
According to the statement, Foster transferred the money from various Citigroup corporate accounts to the bank’s cash account and then after several transactions to his own bank account at JPMorgan Chase. In order to conceal some of the transactions Foster used a false contract or deal number to be placed in the reference line of the wire transfer.
Citigroup detected the fraud a couple of weeks ago during a recent internal audit. “The bank immediately contacted law enforcement officers after discovering the suspicious transactions,” said Shannon Bell, a Citigroup spokeswoman. He also noted that the bank hopes Foster is prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
35-year old Gary Foster had worked at Citigroup for over 10 years. In January 2011 left the position of vice president and head of treasury department at Long Island branch office in New York. According to the prosecutors, Foster was performing fraud operations in May-December 2010, Bloomberg says. Citigroup was formed in 1998 as a result of a merger of Citicorp and Travelers Group and is currently one of four biggest US banks together with Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo.
