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Press Release

Washington County Woman Sentenced to 30 Months for Bank Fraud and Aggravated Identity Theft

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of New York

ALBANY, NEW YORK – Renee Burnell, age 49, of Hudson Falls, New York, was sentenced today to 30 months in prison for defrauding two banks using the personal information of the customers of her plumbing and heating business.

United States Attorney Carla B. Freedman and Janeen DiGuiseppi, Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), made the announcement.

Burnell previously pled guilty to a two-count indictment charging bank fraud and aggravated identity theft, and admitted that between August 2019 and January 2020, she defrauded Synchrony Bank and The Bank of Missouri by applying for lines of credit with each bank using her customers’ personal identifiable information and then using the lines of credit to falsify purchases that benefitted her plumbing and heating business. Burnell admitted that her scheme resulted in a loss of $119,264.43 to The Bank of Missouri and a loss of $13,912.00 to Synchrony Bank.

Senior United States District Judge Lawrence E. Kahn ordered full restitution to the banks and also imposed a 3-year term of supervised release to begin after Burnell is released from prison.

The FBI investigated this case and Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander P. Wentworth-Ping prosecuted the case.

Updated March 23, 2023

Topics
Financial Fraud
Identity Theft