A Bank of America employee in Houston lost his job and was charged with two felonies after two women accused him of stealing personal photos from their phones while helping them access their account information.
NBC’s Click 2 Houston reports court records made public Wednesday claim Juan Esteban Ramirez accessed the cell phones of a pair of 20-year-old women who trusted him with their personal information. Prosecutors also say it’s “highly unlikely” Ramirez only pulled that stunt twice.
The first known victim said she went to the Bank of America where Ramirez worked to get a new debit card in September and didn’t know how to look up her account number. She unlocked her phone and handed it to the 27-year-old banker, who allegedly texted himself 16 images of the customer “nude or wearing underwear only,” then deleted the texts from her phone and returned it. However, the victim’s smartwatch notified her that messages had been sent from one of her devices and she filed a police report.
Alleged victim number two said she had a similar encounter that same week after she visited the same bank with her parents. Investigators say that woman became aware of the invasion of privacy when Ramirez texted her from his own phone, giving her the impression he “expected something from her in exchange for the privacy of those texts.”
Ramirez was initially arrested in January and charged with unlawful disclosure of intimate visual material. NBC reports the court documents made public this week pertaining to the second woman’s claims charge him with the same offense.
“We have a pattern of behavior here and hope to be able to identify another, whether it be one, two, three, ten more victims,” Assistant District Attorney Keaton Forcht said.
ABC News reports the bank cut ties with Ramirez in October following the first claim made against him. He’ll be in court next month.
