FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A former South Florida personal banker worked in concert with scammers in a seven-figure wire fraud scheme targeting unsuspecting customers, authorities allege.
Officials said Ana Dalila Vega was aware she was under investigation and had booked a one-way flight to Nicaragua set to depart Thursday. Instead, on Thursday, federal agents arrested her and took her to the Broward County jail.
Vega, 33, of Hollywood, is now facing a bank fraud conspiracy charge in Fort Lauderdale federal court.
According to a federal criminal complaint authored by a special agent with the U.S. Secret Service, Vega was employed by Citibank from October 2017 to January 2024.
Authorities said in 2023, Vega began communicating with a man she met in her apartment building who “sold drugs” and knew she worked at Citibank and he recruited her to help with fraudulent bank activity. He’s identified in the complaint as “Co-Conspirator 1.”
Vega, authorities allege, “admitted that she agreed to help Co-Conspirator 1 by unblocking certain Citibank accounts, adding authorized signers to Citibank accounts and transferring funds between accounts.”
According to the complaint, she told investigators when she asked him “why he was sending people to her to unblock the accounts and transfer money,” he responded, “The less you know, the better.”
In the complaint, authorities included a photo of text messages they said Vega showed them showing a conversation between her and Co-Conspirator 1 (illustration below):
Authorities said in March 2023, Vega facilitated a $60,000 unauthorized wire transfer from a customer’s account to an account called “GETTHEBREAD LLC.”
Throughout 2023, investigators said, Vega agreed to help unblock accounts, add unauthorized signers and process transfers for people sent to her by the co-conspirator. She later admitted she knew the money did not belong to the people accessing the accounts and that she was paid several thousand dollars in cash.
Authorities said in December 2023, she worked with a second co-conspirator to defraud a customer out of $1.3 million through multiple transactions.
According to the complaint, Vega’s statements to law enforcement came after law enforcement interviews in November and on Feb. 11, where she “initially denied engaging in any fraudulent activity and denied knowing Co-Conspirator 1,” but then “admitted to her criminal conduct” after being “confronted with evidence of her involvement.”
In the Feb. 11 interview, agents said Vega told investigators that Co-Conspirator 1 sent her a U.S. Department of Justice news release about a Miami bank fraud arrest for conduct similar to what they were engaging in and “advised her to be careful.”
According to the complaint, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security alerted agents that on Feb. 17, Vega “booked a one-way ticket to Nicaragua” set to depart on Thursday with no return trip booked.
Agents said they called Vega on Monday and asked if she could meet with them on Thursday or Friday. They said Vega told them she couldn’t because “she was having problems with her car” and asked if they could meet the following week, when she “’hop(ed)’ to have her car back from the dealership.”
According to the complaint, she “made no mention of her plan to travel to Nicaragua.”
Instead of waking up in Nicaragua on Friday morning, Vega found herself in jail and scheduled to head to federal court.
Online records show she had been set to make an appearance in front of a magistrate judge at 11 a.m.; the court records hadn’t been updated further as of around 1 p.m.
According to a Washington, D.C. law firm, bank fraud carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million.
A Citibank spokesperson declined to comment on Vega’s arrest.
Records show Vega was being held in the Broward Sheriff’s Office Main Jail in Fort Lauderdale, as of Friday.
Read the complaint:
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