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On Thursday, Jan. 19, Scarsdale Police Chief Andrew Matturro announced they had arrested Flushing residents Yan Lin Liu, 33, and Huirong Liu, 24, and charged them with 27 felony counts of criminal possession of a forged instrument after suspicious ATM activity was reported at Webster Bank on Popham Road.
According to police, they spoke to a bank manager at the location, who reported that she had seen two Asian men in their 20s or 30s who were “acting suspiciously while withdrawing money at the ATM machine” on Tuesday, Jan. 14. Three days later, bank employees noted that the ATM had unusually low funds, and security was flagged.
The following day, the manager noticed $3,000 was withdrawn overnight from the Popham branch. According to the manager, on a typical day, between $20 and $1,300 is withdrawn. Later that afternoon, the same two Asian men entered the bank. One stood behind the other while he made multiple cash withdrawals, according to police.
Officer John Boggi, who filed the police report, was actively investigating the incident when one of the suspects returned to the bank and the bank manager alerted him, shouting “that’s him.”
The suspect saw the officer and attempted to leave. Boggi told him that he needed to speak to him back at the bank, but the suspect just shook his head and said, “no English.” Officers then spotted a fraudulent card hanging out of the suspect’s pocket and he was placed under arrest.
The ATM cards each had four digit PIN numbers written on the back, In total, the fraudulent transactions where the suspects were arrested exceeded $29,000.
Matturo said that the investigation is ongoing, as police attempt to identify the financial institution and account holder information that was encoded on the cards. The United States Secret Service assisted in the investigation, and Scarsdale police are now working with the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office Financial Crimes Division.
Both suspects were arraigned in Scarsdale Justice Court on Wednesday and remanded to the Westchester County Jail on $60,000 bail each. Each is a Chinese citizen in America on a visa.
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