Divine?

Jonathan Lin/The Jersey Journal

A 28-year-old Jersey City man has been charged as the leader of an identity theft ring that recruited homeless people and drug addicts to fraudently withdraw $155,000 from TD Bank branches across New Jersey, the Attorney General's Office announced.

Divine D. Garcia Jr. was arrested a month ago at LaGuardia Airport by law enforcement officials from the U.S. Marshals and Port Authority police, authorities said. He is one of eight people, including a former TD Bank teller, charged in the ID theft scheme.
Garcia and his accomplices in the ring used stolen customer account information to withdraw sums ranging from $3,500 to $9,000 from TD Bank branch offices, authorities said. All eight in the ring were indicted on second-degree charges of conspiracy, theft by deception and identity theft.

The ring committed 21 separate thefts using the identities of mostly New York residents

The members of the ring who posed as legitimate TD Bank customers used forged New York driver's licenses and withdrawal slips that were already completed to conduct their fraudulent withdrawals, the press release stated.
In some cases, drug addicts and homeless given clothes to enter the banks and withdraw funds.

The other seven people charged in the ring are Bronthie K. Charles, 27, of Brooklyn, N.Y.; Antonio Clemente, 34, and Rosa Samuels, 59, of the Bronx; Robert A. Wadiak, 47, and Demira D. Woodson, 22, of Roselle Park; Kenneth L. Cummings, 53, of Philadelphia, Pa. and Blanche R. Lopez, 43, of Cliffside Park.

Cummings and Woodson were also charged with two counts each of third-degree money laundering, the press release stated.Garcia is being held in jail on Rikers Island in New York, pending extradition, authorities said.

Authorities say Charles is a former teller at TD Bank who stole the identities of TD Bank customers and Clemente helped Garcia run the run by recruiting others to pose as bank customers.

Wadiak, Cummings, Lopez, Woodson and Samuels fraudulently assumed the identities of TD Bank customers to steal funds from TD Bank branch offices, authorities said.