AMSTERDAM, N.Y. (WNYT)- An Amsterdam woman admitted trying to use fake passport cards to take money from other people\u2019s bank accounts, federal prosecutors said.<\/p>\n
Related: Man sentenced to nearly six years in federal prison for role in $2.2 million gift card fraud scheme<\/a><\/p>\n Nikki Vancuren, 51, pleaded guilty July 7 to attempted bank fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office. <\/p>\n As part of her plea, Vancuren admitted she used fraudulent passport cards for several months in 2022 and 2023 to withdraw or try to withdraw money from other people\u2019s accounts at banks in New York state. <\/p>\n Prosecutors said that included Jan. 19, when she used a fraudulent passport card with a real person\u2019s identifying information and her own photo in an attempt to withdraw $4,000 from an NBT Bank in Johnson City.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Department of Justice\u2019s Fraud Division was established to crack down on cases like this,\u201d said First Assistant U.S. Attorney John A. Sarcone. \u201cBecause of her repeated actions, Ms. Vancuren is now facing up to 30 years in federal prison. I commend the Special Agents at HSI and their local partners for investigating this case and bringing the defendant to justice.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBy repeatedly using fraudulent passport cards to access bank accounts that did not belong to her, this defendant attacked the integrity of our financial system and put innocent account holders at risk,\u201d said Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Buffalo Office Acting Special Agent in Charge Anthony Patrone. <\/p>\n Related: Albany Rural Cemetery ex-manager sent to prison for grand larceny<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThese crimes erode community trust and financial stability, and HSI remains firmly committed to uncovering, disrupting, and bringing to justice individuals involved in fraud wherever we find it,\u201d Patrone said.<\/p>\n Vancuren is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 4. Officials said she faces up to 30 years in prison, a fine of up to $1 million and up to five years of supervised release.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFor Related Stories:\u00a0U.S. Attorney’s Office<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0guilty plea<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Fraud<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Bank Fraud<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Amsterdam<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AMSTERDAM, N.Y. (WNYT)- An Amsterdam woman admitted trying to use fake passport cards to take money from other…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130626,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[101],"tags":[199,49810,19005,63518,200,17454],"class_list":["post-130625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-amsterdam","tag-amsterdam","tag-bank-fraud","tag-fraud","tag-guilty-plea","tag-netherlands","tag-u-s-attorneys-office"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116930941586262589","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}