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In January 2020, Debi Gamber studied a computer screen filled with information on scores of check deposits. As a manager for eight years at a TD Bank branch in the Baltimore suburb of Essex, she had reviewed a flurry of account activity as a security measure. These transactions, though, from the ATM of a tiny TD location nestled in a nearby mall, struck her as suspicious<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Time and again, Gamber saw that these checks were payable to churches \u2013 many states away from the Silver Spring shopping center branch \u2013 yet had been deposited into personal accounts<\/a>, a potential sign of theft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Digging deeper, she determined that the same customer service representative, Diape Seck, had opened at least seven of the accounts, which had received more than 200 church check deposits. Even fishier, the purported account holders had used Romanian passports and driver\u2019s licenses to prove their identities. Commercial bankers rarely see those forms of ID. So why were all these Romanians streaming into a small branch located above a Marshall\u2019s clothing store?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suspecting crimes, Gamber submitted an electronic fraud intake form, then contacted TD\u2019s security department to inform them directly of what she had unearthed. Soon, the bank discovered that Seck had relied on Romanian documents for not just seven accounts but for 412 of them<\/a>. The bank phoned local police and federal law enforcement to report that an insider appeared to be helping criminals cheat churches and TD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nine months after TD\u2019s tip, agents started rounding up conspirators, eventually arresting nine<\/a> of them for crimes that netted more than US$1.7 million<\/a> in stolen checks. They all pleaded guilty<\/a> to financial crimes except for Seck, who was convicted<\/a> in February 2023 for bank fraud, accepting a bribe and other crimes. He was sentenced in June 2023<\/a> to three years in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n