The futures of thousands of city public-school teachers were put at risk by an insider at the New York City Teachers’ Retirement System – who allegedly conspired with bumbling identity thieves to pilfer from one of the nation’s largest pension funds.
Law-enforcement officials said yesterday that they were still investigating what they believe was a multi-person identity-theft ring that accessed pensioners’ bank account and Social Security numbers, their dates of birth and security pass codes.
Roughly $42,000 was stolen using the financial information of at least seven pensioners, and checks totaling over $359,000 made out to 19 members or their beneficiaries were discovered in possession of the retirement-system insider, according to court papers.
The New York City Teachers’ Retirement System manages more than $30 billion in pension assets for more than 150,000 employees and retirees of the city Department of Education and the City University of New York.
Although as many as 5,800 accounts were said to have been accessed, it was not clear whether data on all of them, or only some, was actually stolen. Neither the retirement system nor authorities would estimate the number of pensioners subjected to fraud.
Sam Miller, a spokesman for the retirement system, said only that the fund has notified pensioners whose information it believes could have been compromised and that steps have been taken to “correct and protect any affected accounts.”
Authorities began to unravel the scam on Dec. 1, 2005, with the arrest of Antione Lawton, 34, and Kevin Braxton, 23, whom prosecutors charge kidnapped a teenage intern at the Washington Mutual Bank branch at 96th Street and Broadway to coerce him into cashing stolen fund checks.
The pair apparently turned to the teen, who did not cooperate, after the arrest in August of a teller, David LeFlore, who allegedly illegally withdrew $42,000 from pensioners for the crime ring.
Police on Dec. 15 arrested Jerome Boyd, 27, a clerk who prosecutors claim viewed personal and financial information of roughly 5,800 pensioners during his three years at the fund.
A search of his Harlem apartment and downtown Manhattan workplace turned up 19 checks totaling more than $359,130, payable to members or their beneficiaries, police said.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Identity Theft Unit and the Police Department’s Organized Theft and Identity Theft Task Force are probing.