"Today, Juan Velez is facing accountability for abusing his position as a personal banker to steal from a 79-year-old man suffering from dementia," Bragg said in a statement. "We are committed to protecting older New Yorkers from fraudsters who target their well-earned savings."
Prosecutors said the victim visited the Citibank branch several times a week to speak with Velez after getting confused about what was going on with his money. But Velez, who was actively stealing from the victim, blamed the elderly man's frequent visits on his memory problems.
Velez's scheme included setting up fake accounts disguising himself as the elderly man and using them to transfer money to himself, according to prosecutors. He used his victim's money to pay off his credit-card bills and to splurge on the hog between April 2022 and April 2023.
Juan Velez, 35, of Hoboken, NJ, had faced up to 15 years behind bars for his crime but ended up copping a plea deal that landed him a six-month jail term Tuesday on a grand larceny charge, prosecutors said.
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