A former executive with Citigroup may be headed to prison, after being accused of stealing over $19.2 million from the bank. Gary Foster, 35, is being accused of engaging in a series of money transfers that allowed him to pillage his former boss over a period of time.
Foster surrendered to authorities at John F. Kennedy International Airport after arriving home on a flight from Bangkok. He was released on $800,000 bond and appeared in federal court in Brooklyn to face charges. He is being charged with bank fraud, with a possible maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.
His defense attorney, Isabelle Kirshner, said that Foster was cooperative with authorities.
“As soon as he became aware they were looking for him, he voluntarily contacted the FBI and arranged to return,” Kirshner said.
Foster served as vice president of the treasury department at Citigroup before leaving the company in January. His former bank has stated that they are ”outraged by the actions of this former employee” and hoped to see him “prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”
A prosecutor for the government said that Foster “used his knowledge of bank operations to commit the ultimate inside job,” U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch said in a statement.
In one transaction that took place in November, 2010, Foster allegedly wired $3.9 million from a Citigroup fund in Baltimore to his personal account in New York. The transactions weren’t noticed until an internal audit took place within the company.
