A month after returning to the Boston bank where he'd been previously been fired, a teller was caught with a large amount of cash he'd allegedly just stolen from the bank with the help of his brother, prosecutors said.
Jenel Flounoury and his older brother Justin Flounoury, both from Brockton, are accused of stealing nearly $200,000 from Energy Credit Union in the city's West Roxbury neighborhood on Tuesday afternoon, the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office said Wednesday.
"We've seen time and time again employees hatching what they think is a clever plan to steal from their workplace, and then we see those supposedly clever plans unravel, usually very quickly," District Attorney Kevin Hayden said in a statement. "The immediate suspicions of the bank officers and some extremely effective work by the investigative agencies involved led to these brothers answering to these charges in court today.
It wasn't immediately clear if the Flounourys had attorneys who could speak to the charges of larceny and conspiracy that they're facing.
The incident was reported about 12:55 p.m., bringing Boston police and FBI investigators to the bank, where Jenel Flounoury, 28, allegedly said he'd been approached by a man who handed over a note that said, "hand it over." He turned around and went into the main vault, retrieving about $197,146 from one part of the vault, prosecutors said.
He handed it over to the robber in a blue ATM bag, saying, "Thank you, sir," according to prosecutors.
The bank's chief financial operator pointed out to the investigators that bank tellers are trained on what to do in robberies, and that how Flounoury acted — he didn't look in his cash drawer, he went right into the vault without being told to and he gave more money than the robber said to hand over — was suspicious, prosecutors said. They also noted that Flounoury was fired last May for violating company policy — they didn't say what — and rehired this August.
So investigators followed Flounory after he finished work and saw him head to a residence in Brockton, where he and his 32-year-old brother were spotted burning what appeared to be clothes in a grill in a side yard, according to prosecutors.
At 1:45 a.m. on Wednesday, investigators returned to the residence with a search warrant and found a large amount of money, prosecutors said, though they didn't note if it was all the roughly $197,146 stolen from Energy Credit Union. The brothers were arrested without incident.
The Flounourys were ordered held on $10,000 bail and ordered to keep away from the bank, prosecutors. They're due back in court Oct. 30.
