Rochester Man Indicted For Stealing More Than $1.2 Million From His Brother And In-Laws

CONTACT:      Barbara Burns
PHONE:           (716) 843-5817
FAX:                 (716) 551-3051

ROCHESTER, N.Y.--U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced that a federal grand jury has returned a 20 count indictment charging Mark Saile, 57, of Rochester, NY,  with mail and wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and money laundering.  The mail and fraud charges carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and a fine of $250,000, the identity theft charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of two years in prison, and the money laundering charges carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

Assistant U.S. Attorney, Richard A. Resnick, who is handling the case, stated that according to the indictment, the defendant’s brother, Robert Saile, who resides in Redmond, Washington, worked for Microsoft, Inc. for a number of years. Robert Saile set up a 401(K) retirement account with Fidelity Brokerage Services, LLC, comprised of Microsoft stock and Fidelity money market funds.  

Between July 26, 2012 and June 20, 2014, Mark Saile contacted Fidelity numerous times pretending to be his brother. During those contacts, the defendant was able to trick Fidelity into transferring approximately $980,000 from Robert Saile’s 401(k) retirement account to a bank account his name. Robert Saile was unaware that his brother was stealing money from his retirement account. The defendant also changed the email and mailing addresses on file at Fidelity so that all correspondence from Fidelity would be sent to him.

The indictment further states that, prior to the fraud against his brother, the defendant pretended to be his in-laws and had more than $258,000 withdrawn from their financial accounts without their knowledge.

The indictment is the culmination of an joint investigation on the part of the United States Postal Inspection Service, under the direction of Shelly Binkowski, Inspector in Charge, Boston Division, United States Postal Inspection Service, the Internal Revenue Service, under the direction of Shantelle Kitchen, Acting Special Agent in Charge, New York Field Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the New York State Police, under the direction of Major Craig Hanesworth.

The fact that a defendant has been charged with a crime is merely an accusation and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.