FBI Arrests Escrow Officer on Charges of Bank Fraud
An escrow officer who allegedly diverted more than $1 million from an Orange County bank to her own accounts has been arrested by federal agents on bank fraud charges.
Dieu-Hien N. Nguyen, 27, of Riverside was arrested by FBI agents Wednesday while she was at work at Western Financial Bank in Orange.
A warrant was issued for Nguyen’s arrest after an internal audit turned up irregularities in her accounts, an FBI spokesman said Thursday.
Nguyen has been employed as an escrow disbursement officer at Western Financial since 1994 and had authority to issue checks to clients.
The case is still under investigation, said FBI agent Carl Swanson. The amount of the loss to the bank is not yet known, “but we expect there will be some loss,” he said. Some of the funds apparently were in Nguyen’s accounts when she was arrested.
FBI agents said they believe Nguyen started siphoning money from the bank shortly after she began working there five years ago. The funds came from escrow accounts tied to mortgage loans that had been made and funded by the bank.
Bail for Nguyen was set at $100,000 Thursday by U.S. Magistrate Arthur Nakazato in federal court in Santa Ana.
Nguyen remained in federal custody Thursday at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles, Swanson said.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
