MIAMI, Fla. — A Miami bank employee has pled guilty to embezzling more than $190,000 from a deceased customer’s account, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida announced Wednesday.
Billy Gedeon, 34, is said to have accessed the customer’s account without authorization in 2023 after learning of the client’s death. He then forged the deceased customer’s signature, closed the account, and transferred the funds to his own personal bank account.
According to prosecutors, Gedeon worked at an international financial institution when he carried out the scheme. By forging a bank form, he withdrew over $190,000 and deposited it into his own account at a different bank.
Mr Gedeon pled guilty Tuesday to a federal information in the Southern District of Florida. He faces up to 30 years in federal prison. Sentencing is set for June 10 at 10 a.m. Eastern before Senior U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno.
Judge Moreno will consider the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutory factors in determining Mr Gedeon’s sentence.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Secret Service and the Office of Inspector General for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
U.S. Attorney Hayden P. O’Byrne, Supervisory Official Antoinette T. Bacon of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Special Agent in Charge Rafael Barros of the U.S. Secret Service Miami Field Office, and Special Agent in Charge Brian Tucker of FRB-OIG made the announcement.
