Tiara Langston, 29, of District Heights, Maryland, was sentenced Thursday in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia to 15 months of incarceration for her role in a scheme that bilked Wells Fargo customers of $124,000 from their accounts.
United States District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth imposed the sentence, also ordering Langston to pay restitution to Wells Fargo which incurred losses on behalf of its customers.
Langston pleaded guilty on November 30, 2020. In entering her plea, Langston admitted to participating in a scheme to steal from Wells Fargo’s customers while she was employed at the bank as a teller during 2017. According to the government’s evidence, Langston used Wells Fargo’s systems to check the account balances of customers without customers’ knowledge.
Langston would then share with a co-conspirator, the customer’s name, and account balance. The co-conspirator then entered the bank and withdrew funds from the customer’s account by presenting a forged signature for the customer.
The conspirators used this scheme to steal $124,000 in cash and an $80,000 cashier’s check from two of the bank’s customers. Wells Fargo was able to detect the theft and stop payment of the $80,000 cashier’s check, thus incurring total losses on behalf of its customers in the amount of the $124,000 in cash that Langston and others stole.
In announcing the sentence, Acting U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips commended the work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Washington Field Office, which investigated the case. He also acknowledged the work of those who are handling the case at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Paralegal Specialist Stephanie Frijas and Assistant U.S. Attorney John W. Borchert.
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