{"id":94429,"date":"2025-12-24T02:32:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T02:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/94429\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T02:32:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T02:32:09","slug":"bank-employee-accused-of-stealing-more-than-500000-from-woman-with-disabilities-south-florida-officials-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/94429\/","title":{"rendered":"Bank employee accused of stealing more than $500,000 from woman with disabilities, South Florida officials say"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A longtime Bank of America employee is accused of exploiting a disabled woman and stealing more than half a million dollars from her, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/miami\/tag\/miami-dade\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">Miami-Dade<\/a> prosecutors.<\/p>\n<p>State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle and Miami-Dade Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz announced the arrest on Tuesday during a joint press conference. They said the case is part of an ongoing effort by the Elder and Vulnerable Adult Exploitation Task Force.<\/p>\n<p>How investigators say it happened<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors allege Mario Martinez, who worked at a Bank of America branch where the victim banked for years, began taking her money after she received an inheritance. According to the arrest warrant, Martinez had known the 47-year-old victim since 2016.<\/p>\n<p>When the woman told Martinez she was struggling to manage her inheritance, he offered to help as a &#8220;financial advisor.&#8221; But investigators say that wasn&#8217;t his role at the bank \u2013 his job was more like customer service.<\/p>\n<p>Authorities say Martinez opened joint accounts without the victim&#8217;s authorization and siphoned off more than $500,000 in a matter of months.<\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/500000-arrest.png#.png\" alt=\"500000-arrest.png \" height=\"611\" width=\"620\" class=\" lazyload\"  loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                  Mario Martinez<\/p>\n<p>  Charges Martinez facesExploitation of an elderly or disabled person for more than $50,000Organized fraud or scheme to defraud more than $50,000Grand theft over $100,000Criminal use of personal informationTampering with or harassing a victim or witnessOfficials respond<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Today&#8217;s arrest is another strong statement by my office, by the sheriff&#8217;s office, and by all of law enforcement in our community that we will not tolerate the victimization of our vulnerable residents,&#8221; Fernandez Rundle said.<\/p>\n<p>Sheriff Cordero-Stutz added, &#8220;We will aggressively pursue those who prey on others. And we will continue working alongside our partners to ensure accountability.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Martinez is being held at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center and is awaiting his first appearance in bond court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A longtime Bank of America employee is accused of exploiting a disabled woman and stealing more than half&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124,807],"class_list":["post-94429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-south-florida"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}