A Rochester man is facing federal charges after allegedly using his job at a local bank to steal nearly half a million dollars from customer accounts.
U.S. Attorney Michael DiGiacomo announced Monday that 28-year-old Damani Brown has been arrested and charged with conspiracy, identity theft, computer fraud, access device fraud, and bank fraud. If convicted, he faces up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Meghan K. McGuire, who is handling the case, stated that according to the complaint, in August 2024, a Rochester area bank reported to the FBI that, over a couple of weeks in July and August, someone accessed the online accounts of approximately 12 customers and transferred funds out of those accounts. Following an internal review, the bank determined that Brown, a bank employee, used his employee credentials to look up each of the victim accounts around the time that the accounts were unlawfully accessed. Brown was able to see whether the victim customers had ever registered their online accounts, their bank member number and social security number. Shortly after Brown performed a lookup, a co-conspirator registered the victim customer’s online account.
In total, Brown and/or his co-conspirator transferred approximately $477,000 from the 12 accounts without the knowledge or consent of the customers. The money was transferred to other, third-party accounts at the bank, and ultimately, approximately $327,000 was withdrawn as cash from various local branches or funds were transferred through CashApp. Within a few days of these fraudulent transfers, a number of the victims contacted the bank to report the unauthorized activity on their accounts.
In January 2025, the FBI obtained a warrant to search Google Accounts associated with the thefts. Investigators recovered verification emails sent from the bank containing one-time password codes and notification emails sent from the bank with updates regarding the online accounts, including email updates, password resets, and account freezes.
The complaint is the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Acting Special Agent-in-Charge Mark Grimm.
The fact that a defendant has been charged with a crime is merely an accusation, and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
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