Chase Bank Employee - Elder Abuse - Stolen Funds - Corporate Indifference
This is a story of Elder Abuse and corporate indifference that I'd like brought to the public's attention. It's criminal and it's wrong. The case is ongoing.
In February and April 2013, cash withdrawals totaling over $100,000 were made from father's savings account at Chase Bank located at 4355 1st Street in Livermore, CA. He used these accounts as a reserve fund and hadn't accessed them in many years. In addition, he'd never set foot in this branch of Chase Bank. These discoveries weren't made until after my father's death from Alzheimer's in 2014. After taking one look at the copies of withdrawal slips obtained from the bank, it was blatantly obvious that the signatures were forged. On April 22, 2014, I met with Melissa Fuentes, branch manager of Chase Bank in Livermore. She denied my request to file a claim. She explained that banking regulations required that they be notified of any irregularities within 60 days or 2 bank statements and too much time had passed. I reported it as a crime with the Livermore Police Department and returned to the bank. Ms. Fuentes told me and the detective handling the case that the signatures were not forged when they clearly were. I received a form letter in the mail shortly thereafter indicating that they would take no action as the time period to do so had passed.
Someone had stolen my dad's life savings. There was no question about it. It was our family's opinion that it was perpetrated within Chase and that they were going to stone wall it. That proved to be exactly what happened. Chase put up every roadblock they possibly could in an attempt to avoid any responsibility. They weren't cooperative with me or the police detective and investigators. This was even after one of their employees was implicated and acknowledged his participation in the crime.
On July 22, 2014 I spoke with the local Chase internal investigator who had been in communication with the Livermore police detective regarding the case. He assured me that Chase upper management had acknowledged their liability and the funds would be returned to us. He anticipated it would be done within a week or two at the most. He indicated that I should have filed a claim much sooner. When I told him I had been refused that opportunity, he made the arrangement for me to go to my local branch of Chase and file it immediately. I did that. It was quite involved as much paperwork and verification had to take place. It was completed on July 24, 2014. Imagine my utter shock and dismay when the following week, I received a letter from Chase's Claim Department denying the claim stating, once again, that too much time had passed.
That was it. I was done waiting for Chase to do the right thing. It was pointed out to me that the last thing Chase wanted was for this to be made public. On August 8, I sent a certified letter to Mr. James Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase, indicating that it was my intention to do just that. I also filed a claim with the Office of the Comptroller of Currency within the U.S. Department of the Treasury. By the end of August, 2014, the stolen funds had been replaced. Follow-up attempts to address reimbursement for lost interest were ignored by Chase. They have not returned any of my communication attempts regarding the matter.
After much hard work by Detective Elaine Briggs and her team with the Livermore Police Department, one of the perpetrators was arrested and charged. He was a personal banker with Chase. He has admitted taking the money and channeling it through his mother's bank account for personal use. His mother claims to have no knowledge of it even though the money was deposited into a bank account over which she had sole control. Chase computer records indicate that other employees facilitated the transactions through their teller ID's although they have denied having any knowledge of the fraudulent actions. That seems hard to believe. The branch manager who oversaw and authorized the teller's actions at the time of the thefts claims not to have noticed the obvious irregularities. The entire Chase 'cover our ass' attitude appears to be a 'I see nothing, I hear nothing, I know nothing' shrug of the shoulders. It's all questionable and highly suspicious.
JP Morgan Chase needs to change their policies and provide more internal security procedures. They need to re-train employees and weed out those who are inept, incompetent and dishonest. I don't want this to happen to any other vulnerable person and have them and their family suffer the despair it has caused us. read more
