New York, NY – Mayor Bloomberg Victim of Identity Fraud.

New York, NY – You might think a man worth at least $5 billion would hardly notice if $400,000 or so went missing. But someone noticed.

The Manhattan district attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, just announced that two men have been charged with stealing or attempting to steal from personal financial accounts belonging to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

One man, Odalis Bostic, was indicted for trying to steal $420,000 from the mayor. According to prosecutors, Mr. Bostic created the Laderman Development Company in Elizabeth, N.J., and set up accounts in the company’s name at two banks, PNC and Sovereign Bank. In early June, Mr. Bostic deposited a $190,000 forged check into the Sovereign account and a $230,000 forged check into PNC account, according to prosecutors. Both of the forged checks were drawn on Mr. Bloomberg’s personal account at the Bank of America and were issued in the name of the mayor’s financial manager, Geller & Company.

The mayor’s personal account information appeared on both checks, but because of the size of the checks, the two banks put holds on the checks and determined that the checks were forged. The banks then contacted law enforcement authorities.
In the course of the investigation into the forged checks, another fraud was discovered, Mr. Morgenthau said. [nytimesblog]