Miami couple sentenced in thefts from Fifth Third Bank customers
A Miami, Florida, couple who were part of a scheme to steal account and security information from Fifth Third Bank customers have been sentenced, records show.
Diamond Bezada, 26, and Deon Noel, 29, have admitted roles in the scheme, which they said was led and organized by a man who died after all three were indicted in 2022.
According to prosecutors, the scheme involved contacting Fifth Third customers by phone, pretending to be bank employees and obtaining the information from the customers.
The stolen information would be used to get money from the customers’ accounts, which was added to a payment app.
Bezada and Noel received nearly $109,000 from the scheme, although prosecutors say they sought $173,000.
The money was used in August and September 2019 to buy “goods, services and money orders,” primarily in Las Vegas, prosecutors said in court documents.
“The scheme simply appears to have been born of greed and with the intent of taking other people’s money to facilitate lifestyle purchases,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Keefe said in a sentencing memorandum.
Bezada was sentenced Thursday in federal court in Cincinnati to one year in prison. Noel was sentenced to six months. He said that he didn’t solicit information from bank customers, didn’t know where it came from and was only involved in the purchases.
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