Alleged $330K scam targeted 92-year-old man

Nice, trust your local bank, RIGHT, t hey steal from your customer accounts and then they go to Uncle Sam and steal your money again

Did he really think that a $304,000 check wouldn't throw up red flags?

Apparently Citizens Bank has a culture of fraud and corruption. Remember back to those worthless annuities that they sold to senior citizens a few years ago. They were sanctioned by the state ! Time to close these crooks up !
Or, at least take your money out and tell your friends !

Its not your typical bank

...they do offer free checking for life....

....I wonder why.

Hmm.... I work at a bank as well. Guess I better quit taking out those millions from our rich old Jewish customers then. The fuzz is onto us! Time to take my stolen funds with me to the Bahamas. ;)

What a shame! Where are his morals???

I'm a recent victim of fraudelent charges on my account through citizens bank and I have a strong suspicion they themselves were involved somehow. someone gained access to my debit card # and expiration date, made up a card and then made a purchase in SPAIN! The frustrating part about it is....this individual was able to exhaust my LOC and beyond....I'm just curious, how is this possible??? What is the purpose of having a limit? and to top it off, it is taking almost 3 weeks to straighten it out with them.

The Globe Spotlight Team, if they still exist, should be all over predators of the elderly. This is the scandal of out times yet remains the best kept secret. My 84 year old mother inlaw was recently bilked of $30,000 by a telephone scam artist (Jamaican area code) promising her millions. She left money in designated locations and never even met the man. When we reported this to the police they said this is a widespread problem that continues to grow.

Come on Globe, get on this and really get the word out. Also put some heat on law enforcement to really dig into this problem.

not all bankers are bad. I have citizens bank and i like it. Just because you have one bad apple, not all are bad ok. from, pam in lynn, mass

To #2: You're absolutely right...any REAL banker knows that a check over $10,000 immediately gets notice from the Feds and IRS.

Part of this is because RBS Citizens push their employee to the limit, SAD

Citizens means citizens.....senior citizens or any citizens can be bilked by this insitution. This kind of personal behavior, by a bank officer disgusts me. They ought to throw him and his girlfriend in state prison and throw away the key. Of course, they'll get quick parole, that's if they ever see jail time. This white collar crime is universally tolerated, as long as the bank makes "resitituion". The perpertator will, probably, never pay a dime. He probably spent it already.

how low can u go. to steal from a 91 y.o man. throw the book at these two.

Forget about the bank itself! It was the 2 bankers who are responsible for defrauding the 2 seniors. They need to be imprisoned until they are both 92 years old, after they've paid back the money they stole.

This article did not elaborate on Lewis's relationship with the 92 year old man. Why was she given Power of Attorney? Who is she to him? Why wasn't it granted to a family member? Was she posing as some financial advisor?

The Citizens Bank should have some liability for the actions of one of their trusted employees.

Citizens Bank outright SUCKS! I had a checking acct there a few years ago. I wrote 10 checks one night to pay some bills, and unfortunately the total of my 10 checks overdrew my account by about $10. Instead of CB charging me their std $35 fee for the one check that overdrew the account, they instead charged me $35 for every one of the 10 checks I wrote, even though 9 or them cleared. I didn't find out until the SOB's deducted $350 from my account on my next direct deposit. When I tried to get the fee for the 9 checks that cleared returned into my account, they basically told me to take a hike, because their policy is that any check that overdraws an account on any given day causes all of the incoming checks to be charged an overdraft fee. BANDITS! REMOVE YOUR MONEY OUT OF SHODDY AND CORRUPT CITIZENS BANK ... CLOSE YOUR ACCOUNTS WITH THEM BEFORE THEY SHAKE YOU DOWN FOR YOUR CASH AS WELL!!!!!

My brother was hospitalized and unable to speak due to his illness. He was seperated from his wife at the time. He was worried that his x would clean him out while he recovered, as she had his PIN number. I went to Citizens to advise them of this, explaining the situation. They told me to beat it, well wouldn't you know it, the next day, his x clean him out. We went to Citizens bank after he got out of the hospital, to advise them of the fraud, and they basically said there was nothing they could do about it as she had the PIN number.
I manage some trust funds for my family and immediately withdraw all the money and put it in another bank. I would rather stuff money under my bed then trust Citizens.

What's the difference between these two crooks and the goings on of our illustrious state politicians, Diane Wilkerson and Salvatore DiMasi! If I was accused of income tax evasion as was Wilkerson several years ago, I would have been thrown in jail. As for DiMasi, let's wait and see what this sleeze bag is guilty of.

The average RBS Citizens Bank employee lasts 2-3 years before they get mentaly ill due to the stress they build into their employees... "C.R.E.D.O." working for a greedy bank a person can also become greedy!!!

The bank prides it self on its “CREDO” (highlighted below) which is not demonstrated in the branches, and is nothing more than a cover up.
Our Credo
The accomplishments of Citizens Bank can certainly be attributed to smart business strategy and organic growth, but we also believe in something special: Our Credo. We often refer to the trilogy of Customers, Colleagues and Community as the “Three Cs”:
• Customers: “Hug…”
• Colleagues: “We want our company to be the best place to work in the world. The environment will be extraordinarily caring, like an extension of your own family. We will be supportive in time of personal difficulty, create opportunities for professional growth, and always make an effort to listen and act on your ideas. Every colleague will be treated with dignity and respect at all times.”
• Community: “We ….”
The daily pressures that are put upon the “colleagues” on opening new accounts force questionable moral because employees tend to open shell accounts or accounts that customers do not need when sales are down. In the event that an employee is not opening accounts as required they are written up and or terminated. So moral is frequently moved aside to keep a person from getting fired. The goals are completely unrealistic and these shell accounts that employees open are usually not in the customer’s best interest and are not even profitable for the bank. I am currently working for a smaller bank, I love the company and the challenges it brings me every day. The words that are in Citizens Credo I now experience daily. I left RBS Citizens 4 months ago and people and since then people are still getting fired regularly for not meeting their goals or for opening needless accounts that customer don’t need to meet their goals. On average Citizens bank customers have 2 to 5 checking accounts that are opened just to help the bank employee. They use to put the same pressure on us to sell investment products until they got sued and lost. What does it take to for a large company like RBS Citizens to be more compassionate of their employees and really practice what they preach “The CREDO”? I think someone really needs to do a favor to society and help a company like RBS Citizens realize that their employees are not machines. These colleagues that Citizens “cares some much about” are getting sick, such as having strokes, becoming depressed, gaining weight and all types of illnesses that come from stress and being over worked. I am not trying to put the company down, however, with the economy where it is today job security is definitely an issue. Colleagues deserve to live the Credo everyda

He is a sad example of people who take advantage of the most vulnerable citizens but he does not represent the entire banking community nor banking institutions. I have been in banking for 18 years and find Rudolfo's behavior repugnant and immoral.

I've read the previous comments, and can appreciate the overall dissatis- faction. Even so, I would like to express a view based on my personal experience as a Citizens Bank customer for several years. On several occasions Mr. Bonilla handled various and complex banking matters for me. He was knowledgable and thorough. He was thwarted in obtaining a promotion, lacking the requisite formal education to advance. I encouraged him to return to school part-time to earn a bachelor's degree. If convicted, he undoubtedly would agree that would have been the better course to take..

I dont thrust any banks cause they are the biggest crooks out there they take your money and when there is an illlegal activity in your account and you tell them about it they blow you off but when someone else is trying to steal your money they give it to then right away with no questions ask so who are you to thrust

Good job by BI to identify and report these crooks.

Citizens puts unreasonable sales demands on it employees forcing them to choose between getting fired for unsatisfactory results or producing fraudulent results. Citizens Bank has been losing employees by the truckloads. Anyone who has other options is leaving. It didn't used to be that way. The people in the branches have been disempowered from most things that keep customers satisfied. Their operating systems are antiques that are not capable of supporting the number of customers they have and continue to seek. People are rewarded only for their sales results, with little concern given to how those results are achieved. If this banker was attempting to defraud an elderly man, then he should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, no excuses. But a corporate culture that gives employees few alternatives other than fraud is a problem!

The unreasonable sales demands and horrific culture at Citizens are the fault of one greedy individual, Mr. Larry Fish. His Credo as you have read previously is hypocrisy. Hug the customer? Yes, as long as you are rifling through their pockets. He instilled this culture in order to get his contractual incentive payouts, more than the RBS CEO by the way.

Mr. Fish may want to play philanthropist but let it be known he is spreading the wealth… The wealth that was made of under paying and over taxing great employees and policies designed to drain his customers.

One last little nugget of knowledge about Mr. Fish, look carefully at his resume… The man has failed his way to the top and Citizens was his crowning achievement. The difference being this time he saw the writing on the wall and got out before his house of cards came down.

Very Sad. Rudy also handled banking matters for me. He seemed to be the only one in the branch that knew what he was doing as the manager is never there or knows what she is doing. I do know that he was turned down numerous times for promotion. I'm hoping this is not true.

Again, very sad. I guess he just decided to quit the honest way.