A South Carolina woman is headed to prison after using other people’s identities to pull more than $37,000 out of four West Virginia bank accounts that were not hers.
Della Palestino, 60, of Lexington, South Carolina, was sentenced to two years in prison and one year of supervised release for aggravated identity theft, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia says.
She was also ordered to pay $47,010 in restitution for the aggravated identity theft.
Prosecutors say Palestino went to four financial institutions in southern West Virginia and used a different person’s personal information each time, including a forged signature, to get into that person’s bank account without permission.
She withdrew $21,920 in Spencer, $4,200 in Charleston and $9,400 in Gilbert in September of 2024, along with $2,125 in Huntington.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia says,
“As part of her guilty plea, Palestino admitted that she conducted all four fraudulent transactions and withdrew a total of $37,645 from the bank accounts of the four individuals. Palestino further admitted that she used a counterfeit passport card during one of the fraudulent withdrawals.”
The case was investigated by the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service, the West Virginia State Police and police departments in Huntington, Charleston and Gilbert.
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This post South Carolina Woman Drains $37,645 From Four West Virginia Bank Accounts Using Stolen Identities and Forged Signatures appeared first on The ICD.
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