Dead Broke: Far Rockaway Man Convicted For Stealing $650K From Deceased Sisters

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By David Brand

A Far Rockaway bank employee pleaded guilty Wednesday for swindling hundreds of thousands of dollars from the estate of two dead sisters.

Joshua Stephens-Anselm used a mobile bank account to divert more than $650,000 from the accounts of Edith and Marjorie Thompson, who died in 2013 and 2014. Stephens-Anselm used the stolen cash to pay for vacations, cable bills and clothes, said Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.

Stephens-Anselm, 28, also picked up the tab on a friend’s Victoria Secret credit card bill.

“In pleading guilty, the defendant has now admitted to taking advantage of his position as a trusted bank employee to dip into the accounts of two deceased sisters,” Brown said. “The defendant faces time behind bars as a result of his greed.”

In total, Stephens-Anselm stole $662,465.91 from accounts he set up for the sisters while working at a JP Morgan Chase branch. In 2016 and 2017, he wrote checks to himself from the accounts before diverting the money through a mobile banking app.

Stephens-Anselm pleaded guilty to second-degree grand larceny before Queens Criminal Court Judge Gia Morris, who said she would likely him to six months in jail at sentencing on Jan. 7, 2019.

According to the criminal complaint, an analysis of the sisters’ accounts revealed that Stephens-Anselm stole more than $590,000 from the estate of Marjorie Thompson and $70,000 from the estate of Edith Thompson.

JP Morgan Chase reimbursed both accounts, Brown said.