Mortgage company staffer who stole $2M gets prison term

CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) — A mortgage company staffer who created hundreds of fraudulent wire transfers to steal roughly $2 million from the firm has been sentenced to nearly four years in federal prison.

Dilcia Mercedes, 38, of Camden, will also have to serve three years of supervised release after she's freed under the sentence imposed Tuesday and must pay $2,087,697 in restitution, according to federal prosecutors. She had pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering charges.

Mercedes was a payment processor at the mortgage company and used her access to track escrow payments that were returned to the firm as undeliverable, prosecutors said. When those payments remained inactive, Mercedes created fraudulent bank accounts and wire transfer requests to send the money to accounts she controlled.

Wile operating the scam from April 2014 to May 2017, prosecutors said Mercedes enlisted the help of relatives and friends in creating the bank accounts. She also used a co-worker’s login credentials to approve the fraudulent transfers.