IN THE COURTS | Two Former SunTrust Bank Employees Sentenced, Ordered to Pay $83,800
Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
District of Columbia
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, March 9, 2021
WASHINGTON – Rashad Liverpool, 28, and Robert Tillery, 45, were each sentenced on Friday, by the Honorable James A. Crowell IV, Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips. The two former SunTrust Bank employees each pled guilty in February 2020 to financial exploitation of an elderly person, in violation of Title 22, D.C. Code, Section 933.01(a)(3), for defrauding a 72-year-old military widow with diminished capacity of $83,800. The court ordered both defendants to pay restitution for the entire amount that they each stole. The court suspended imposition of each defendant’s sentence to the maximum period of incarceration provided for under the D.C. Sentencing Guidelines, effectively sentencing each defendant to the maximum period of supervised probation. The court may impose incarceration if a defendant violates the terms of probation.
According to the government’s evidence, during the summer of 2018, Liverpool and Tillery each frequently visited the victim, a client of SunTrust Bank, after normal business hours and against bank policy. They identified funds that the widow held at Bank of America and took advantage of her diminished capacity in order to move those funds into accounts that they controlled. Liverpool moved $51,900 into a joint account that he created in his and the victim’s name at Capital One Bank. He used all of the funds for his own benefit, including two trips to California and one trip to Miami. During the trip to Miami, Liverpool used the victim’s funds to stay at a beachfront hotel, rent a red Ford Mustang, and purchase items from a mini bar. Liverpool also made ATM withdrawals totalling $3,200 from the victim’s account while she was hospitalized. Meanwhile, Tillery withdrew $3,000 in cash from one of the victim’s accounts and wrote himself a check for $25,700 from another. He used these funds to make purchases at various outlet stores and finance a move to Chicago. The scheme ended when the victim was hospitalized and a newly appointed attorney-in-fact discovered that the funds were missing.
In announcing the sentence, Acting U.S. Attorney Phillips commended the work of the Metropolitan Police Department, specifically Detective Phillipe Moore of the Financial and Cyber Crimes Unit, as well as the work of Investigator Jonathan Rich, of the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia at the time of investigation, who investigated the case together. He also acknowledged the work of those who handled the case at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Mika, Assistant U.S. Attorney Chimnomnso Kalu, former Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Romano, and Supervisory Victim Witness Advocate Jennifer Clark.
This prosecution is part of the Office’s wider efforts to combat crimes against seniors and vulnerable adults. In 2018, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia simultaneously launched initiatives to address the abuse and exploitation of older adults. The Elder Abuse and Financial Exploitation Initiative at the U.S. Attorney’s Office expanded its response to criminal and civil violations targeting older adults. The initiative has enabled the U.S. Attorney’s Office to develop and coordinate further its prosecution of these cases and enhance its overall support of older or vulnerable victims. The team consists of experienced prosecutors and victim advocates from across the Office, to include the Superior Court, Criminal, and Civil Divisions, as well as the Victim Witness Assistance Unit. This prosecution is indicative of the continued collaboration between the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Office of the Attorney General (from which an attorney is detailed to handle, as a special assistant United States attorney, financial crime cases involving elderly victims) to prosecute cases of this kind.