N.Y. Women Face Sentencing for Defrauding Credit Union Shared Branching Network
Lesley Lucchese and Danielle Cappetti withdrew funds from credit unions around the nation while acting as runners for the fraud conspiracy ring.
Two New York women will face sentencing in December after admitting they were involved in an eight-person fraud conspiracy ring that targeted the national credit union shared branching network, stealing nearly $1 million.
Lesley Lucchese, 54, and Danielle Cappetti, 45, both of New York City, each pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud in August, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office in Albany.
As part of their pleas, Lucchese and Cappetti each admitted that from December 2021 to April 2023, they withdrew funds from credit unions while acting as runners for fraud conspiracy that targeted credit unions that were part of the shared branching network.
The conspirators exploited this network by creating fake identifications in the names of real credit union members, but with photographs of other individuals, including Lucchese and Cappetti, who conducted fraudulent transactions at shared branch member credit unions all over the country in exchange for drugs or a small portion of the stolen funds.
In total, Lucchese and Cappetti stole nearly $500,000 from credit unions, the vast majority of which went to the leaders of the conspiracy, prosecutors said.
In April, Victor Barriera, 63 of the Bronx, N.Y., was the first person in this fraud ring to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud. He stole $148,352 and attempted to steal an additional $15,000, according to court documents.
In May 2022, Barriera and two other conspirators, David Daniyan and Gaysha Kennedy, were caught attempting to defraud a Cohoes, N.Y., branch of CAP COM Federal Credit Union, where employees became suspicious and called police. CAP COM merged into State Employees Federal Credit Union during the summer of 2022 to form the $9.1 billion Broadview Federal Credit Union in Albany, N.Y.
Barriera is expected to be sentenced in November, court filings showed.
Kennedy, 45, of Brooklyn, previously pled guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud, and is scheduled to be sentenced in September. Another member of the fraud ring, Jerjuan Joyner, 49, of Brooklyn, pled guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and will face sentencing in October, according to court filings.
Three other fraud ring members, Oluwaseun Adekoya, 38, of New Jersey, has been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and two counts of aggravated identity theft; David Daniyan, 59, of Brooklyn, N.Y., has been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and two counts of aggravated identity theft, and Akeem Balogun, 53, of Brooklyn, has been charged with conspiracy to commit bank fraud.
They have all pleaded not guilty to their charges.