Pittsburgh Man Pleads Guilty to Multiple Fraud Charges

A Pittsburgh man pleaded guilty in multiple fraud schemes in federal court, according to United States Attorney David J. Hickton.

Joseph Graziano, Jr., 29, pleaded guilty to six counts, including charges of bank embezzlement, bank fraud, mail fraud, filing a false income tax return, conspiracy and aggravated identity theft, before Senior United State District Judge Terrance F. McVerry, the United States Attorney’s Office reported for the Western District of Pennsylvania.

Graziano was employed at Bank of New York Mellon as a corporate trust administrator from May 2008 through March 2011 and used his position to embezzle more than $2 million from corporate trust accounts. Graziano embezzled $2,441,294.35, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Additionally, Graziano failed to report the embezzled money as income on his federal income tax returns.

Graziano also hatched schemes to defraud a number of other banks, including Dollar Bank, First Niagara Bank, First Commonwealth Bank, Ameriserv Financial Bank and PNC Bank, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. Graziano would submit fraudulent loan documents to induce the banks to extend credit to him.

Regarding the charges of mail fraud, Graziano also engaged in a scheme to defraud consumers on the Internet marketplace, eBay.com. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Graziano would sell an item to an individual through eBay and then send the consumer an empty box after receiving payment.

Additionally, Graziano attempted to acquire conterfeit United States currency from Uganda, with the intention to use the phoney cash in place of real currency, the attorney’s office said. He used a stolen identity to get a mailbox to receive the fake money and also tried opening up credit cards and bank accounts using the stolen identity.

According to the United States Attorney’s Office, the law provides for a mandatory minimum sentence of two years, a total sentence of 90 years in prison, a fine of $3,000,000, or both.