Pittsburgh Man Charged in Multiple Fraud Schemes

PITTSBURGH—A Pittsburgh resident has been indicted on charges of bank embezzlement, bank fraud, and mail fraud, United States Attorney David J. Hickton announced today.

Joseph Graziano, Jr., 28, has been indicted on one count of bank embezzlement, seven counts of bank fraud, and six counts of mail fraud.

According to the indictment presented to the court, from May 12, 2008 through March 25, 2011, the Graziano was employed by Bank of New York Mellon as a Corporate Trust Administrator. In this position, he had the access and ability to wire funds in and out of accounts held by Bank of New York Mellon’s corporate trust customers. Graziano used this access to embezzle $2,441,294.35 from Bank of New York Mellon by wiring funds from the corporate trust accounts into his own bank accounts at Citizens Bank.

In the time before and after the defendant was employed by Bank of New York Mellon, he also engaged in schemes to defraud five other banks including Dollar Bank, First Niagara Bank, First Commonwealth Bank, Ameriserv Financial Bank, and PNC Bank. Defendant submitted fraudulent loan documents to induce the banks to extend credit to him. With respect to the loans from First Commonwealth Bank and Ameriserv Financial Bank, defendant pledged as collateral for the loans two luxury vehicles, providing the banks with fraudulent duplicate titles to the vehicles.

Following the bank embezzlement and the bank frauds, the defendant began engaging in a new and separate scheme to defraud through the online marketplace www.ebay.com. Defendant defrauded eBay buyers by offering personal electronics for sale on eBay. After the buyers submitted payment to the defendant’s PayPal account, the defendant sent the buyers empty boxes, falsely claiming that the boxes' contents had been stolen during shipping.

The law provides for a maximum total sentence of 380 years in prison and a fine of $11,000,000 or both. Under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, the actual sentence imposed would be based upon the seriousness of the offenses and the prior criminal history, if any, of the defendant.

Assistant United States Attorney Tonya Sulia Goodman is prosecuting this case on behalf of the government.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, along with United States Postal Inspection Service and the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation, conducted the investigation that led to the prosecution of Graziano.