Bank of America really did a former city employee a favor when they let him open and allegedly deposit checks made out to Seattle and city entities into two accounts, one in his name and another called “The City of Sea.” Close enough, right?

MyNorthwestNow.com says the man is accused of stealing $1.1 million from Seattle Public Utilities over two years, claiming he diverted customer checks for water main extension projects into a personal bank account.

“This defendant both presented the bill to customers and collected the payment. That’s a recipe for embezzlement,” said King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg. “It was a lot easier than one would expect to steal a million dollars from the city.”

Satterberg says he’s surprised that BofA would make it possible for him to open the account and accept checks made out to the city, and that Seattle might have grounds for civil action against the bank.

We’re just amazed they made banking easy for anyone, much less an accused embezzler.

*Thanks to Shelley for the tip!

Man steals $1M from Seattle, Bank of America sits idly by [MyNorthwest.com]

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