A Fort Lauderdale attorney says she was duped out of more than $100,000 by her former trusted accountant.
Carolyn Hochberg owns the Foreclosure Defense Law Group. She says the accountant, who worked in her office, opened his own bogus business called Foreclosure Defense Loss Mitigation Group and then opened a bank account to go along with it. Hochberg says the accountant would take checks written out to her business and deposit them into his account. Since the names of the two businesses were similar, Hochberg says bank employees never questioned it.
"If somebody at Bank of America had read the name on the check, he wouldn't have been able to do that," she said.
Hochberg says Bank of America took those checks for about one year. She told NBC Miami the accountant opened his own account at a branch right near her office on Commercial Blvd. in Fort Lauderdale.
Hochberg is angry at the bank, and she feels the institution has not responded appropriately.
"They're taking no responsibility. They don't realize their negligence. They want to pass it off on everybody," she said.
Fort Lauderdale police are investigating, and they say this type of check fraud is not so rare. They say the most common check fraud crime is old-fashioned check printing. Bank of America is also investigating.
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"Simply when somebody compromises your account, makes up checks and circulates them to individuals to go into banks or other check cashing places and basically withdraws funds from your account, " said Det. Steve Sceolfo.
Hochberg has a list of more than 60 checks for $110,000, all of it stolen, she says, by her former trusted accountant.
