NEW ORLEANS - U.S. Attorney Peter G. Strasser announced that TRINA ROBAIR, age 44, of New Orleans, Louisiana pleaded guilty Wednesday, April 24, 2019 to a one count Bill of Information charging her with Bank Larceny in relation to stealing at least $149,500 from an elderly deceased woman for whom ROBAIR was a caretaker, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section § 2113(b).
The charging document, filed in court, states that ROBAIR had access to the elderly woman’s accounts because she was incapacitated. ROBAIR did not have permission to steal the money. The Bill of Information further states that ROBAIR stole $149,500.
In a document filed in open court and signed by ROBAIR, she admitted to four schemes she used to steal money. Scheme one involved ROBAIR simply forging the deceased woman’s signature on checks drawn from her account. Scheme two involved withdrawing money from the accounts of the deceased woman using ATM and electronic funds transfers. The third scheme involved ROBAIR impersonating the deceased woman in a telephone conversation with Fidelity Investments and convincing Fidelity that she was the deceased woman. She was able to steal $49,000 in this manner. Finally, ROBAIR and co-defendant Michael Reed, age 62, of New Orleans devised a false repair kickback scheme where Reed would purportedly repair the house of the elderly woman and submit invoices. In reality the repairs were never done and ROBAIR received a $20,000 kickback. Reed’s sentencing is scheduled for June 26, 2019.
The statutory penalty for Bank Larceny is ten (10) years imprisonment, $250,000 fine, three (3) years supervised release, restitution and a $100 special assessment. Sentencing is set for August 7, 2019.
The case was investigated by the United States Postal Inspection Service and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney, Carter K. D. Guice, Jr.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
