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Two brothers pleaded not guilty to felony charges stemming from allegations that they staged a robbery at the Energy Credit Union branch in West Roxbury, Mass., last September.
During a hearing in a Boston federal courtroom on Thursday, Justin Flounoury, 32, and his brother Jenel Flounoury, 28, a former Energy CU teller, were charged with one felony count of conspiracy to commit larceny from a credit union and one felony count of larceny from a credit union, court filings showed.
Jenel Flounoury told investigators that on Sept. 24 he was working at his teller station when an unknown male, later identified as Justin Flounoury, approached his window and allegedly wrote a note stating, "hand it over."
Jenel immediately turned around and entered a closed door containing the main vault. He opened the top right vault, retrieved all the money in it, and packed approximately $197,146 in a blue ATM bag. After handing over the money bag to Justin he said, "Thank you, sir" and left, according to court documents.
However, James Brouder, CFO for the $131 million Energy CU, grew suspicious about the heist. He informed investigators that Jenel's actions - such as not looking in his cash drawer, immediately going to the vault without being instructed to do so, and providing more than the amount demanded - were inconsistent with how tellers are trained to respond to a robbery.
Moreover, federal prosecutors alleged that, prior to the robbery, Jenel stored a large cash deposit in a section of the credit union’s vault that he could access alone, violating the credit union’s policies.
Investigators followed Jenel after he left the credit union branch and observed him entering a residence in Brockton. After obtaining a warrant to search the house, police discovered a significant amount of cash and subsequently arrested the brothers.
Contact Peter Strozniak at [email protected].
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