ALBANY – A Washington County woman was sentenced Wednesday to 30 months in prison for defrauding two banks using the personal information of the customers of her plumbing and heating business, federal authorities said.
Renee Burnell, 49, of Hudson Falls had pleaded guilty to a two-count indictment charging bank fraud and aggravated identity theft, according to the U.S. attorney’s office and FBI.
She admitted that between August 2019 and January 2020, she defrauded Synchrony Bank and The Bank of Missouri by applying for lines of credit with each bank using her customers’ personal identifiable information and then using the lines of credit to falsify purchases that benefited her business.
She admitted that her scheme resulted in a loss of $119,264 to The Bank of Missouri and a loss of $13,912 to Synchrony Bank.
Senior U.S. District Judge Lawrence E. Kahn ordered full restitution to the banks and also imposed a three-year term of supervised release.
The FBI investigated and Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander P. Wentworth-Ping prosecuted.
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