A North Palm Beach, Florida, mortgage lender employee siphoned off more than $200,000 from one of the company’s clients after she accessed his bank account using his personal information, police said.
North Palm Beach police arrested Michele Ligorelli, 43, on Tuesday.
Police said Ligorelli worked at United Mortgage Lenders, located in North Palm Beach, when she took the money from the 56-year-old client.
The man, who lives in Pennsylvania, told police he went to the company in August 2013 for a home loan.
According to the police report, he sent the company copies of his W-2 forms, bank account statements, investment accounts and his personal and corporate tax returns.
He was approved for the loan in September of that year, police said.
In November 2013, the client tried to get cash out of his bank account and was told his account had been overdrawn. He and a bank employee determined that between September and November of 2013, there had been 30 transactions that the man had not made.
Some of those transactions were payments for personal bills, including an auto insurance bill, a utility bill and a car payment — all of which were in Ligorelli’s husband’s name, according to the arrest report.
In addition to the bill payments, police found someone had transferred over $17,650 from the client’s account into another bank account. Ligorelli had also opened up Wells Fargo shareholder account and purchased $150,000 worth of stock options, according to the report.
Police were able to determine that each time the man’s account was accessed, it was done from a computer’s address that belonged to United Mortgage Lenders.
In total, police said Ligorelli took $207,148.65 from the client’s account. He was only able to recover $50,000 of his lost assets, police said.
Ligorelli is charged with identity theft and larceny. She is being held at the Palm Beach County Jail on $30,000 bail.
