14 DAY TRIAL // An employee of JPMorgan Chase accessed customer bank accounts and extracted financial information with the purpose of selling it to a third party, who would empty the accounts of the victims.
The operation is believed to have started in January 2014 and ended in April 2015, when the employee, named Peter Persaud, was arrested by the FBI on charges of stealing customer data and attempting to sell it.
Info on account balance was also provided
Persaud’s illegal activity was discovered with the help of a confidential informant and an undercover FBI agent, who met with the defendant multiple times and paid at least $6,000 / €5,350 in exchange for bank account information belonging to the victims.
The data stolen by Persaud from the bank’s database included social security numbers, bank account numbers, card details (expiration date, PIN, CVV), physical addresses, and birth dates.
The information was not accessed without authorization, as Persaud collected it when meeting with the bank’s clients, thus having a reason for accessing the accounts.
Upon delivering the victim’s bank information, Persaud also provided the confidential informant and the undercover agent details about account balances, according to an unsealed document from New York's Eastern District Court (case number is 15-mj-00358 - U.S. v. Persaud).
Bank suspension slows down illegal activity
In late January 2015, Persaud met with the FBI agent and sold information on a sixth victim, whose account balance was of around $180,000 / €160,500. During the meeting, the defendant stated he could obtain details of more JPMorgan Chase customers and exchange them for money.
Another meeting was set up in February, where a trade of data belonging to two more victims was agreed upon, for the sum of $4,500 / €4,000. However, the transaction did not occur because Persaud was suspended from his job and was no longer able to obtain the information.
After the suspension expired, Persaud contacted the undercover agent over the phone and indicated that he wanted to sell bank info of four people, whose accounts contained about $150,000 / €134,000, for a price between $16,000 and $17,000 (€14,300 - €15,000).