N.Y. bank employee faces pot money charges

NEW YORK, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- A New York bank employee has been charged with laundering $50,000 in drug money at her branch and at a neighboring competitor, authorities say.

Natanzia St. Rose, an assistant manager at a Long Island branch of JPMorgan Chase, was arrested last week by federal agents from a money-laundering task force and released on $150,000 bail, the New York Daily News reported.

Federal investigators say St. Rose allegedly came up with a simple scheme to launder the money, in which she allegedly told her supervisor a representative of the nearby Bank of America branch needed $100 bills in exchange for $20s.

Her supervisor OK'd the request and St. Rose then walked into the vault with $30,000 in $20 bills that reeked of marijuana, exchanging them for clean $100 bills, a complaint filed in Brooklyn federal court charges.

The scheme came apart when the diligent supervisor called her counterpart at the nearby Bank of America to verify the transaction and was told the bank had made no such request for $100 bills, authorities said.

In fact, the Bank of America manager reported St. Rose had previously come over and passed $20,000 in $20 bills using the same story -- that JPMorgan Chase needed $100 bills.

The criminal complaint against St. Rose says she remains under investigation for "possible money laundering and structuring of narcotics proceeds through financial institutions."

Both banks are cooperating with investigators.