Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
More money, more problems?
Failed financial adviser robbed two banks to pay $30K in credit-card debt, cops say
Abraham Maghen says he’s a financial adviser who doesn’t know much about managing money and was fired two weeks ago when he didn’t listen to his boss’s “constructive criticism.”
The FBI says he’s a bank robber who wore an “old man” mask and held up tellers at two banks, in Pembroke Pines and Boca Raton, in the past two weeks.
Maghen, 24, of Hollywood, told a judge Wednesday that he had been making good money — at least $5,000 per month at his last two jobs — but has zero savings and an overdraft on his checking account. He said he had racked up about $30,000 in debt on nine credit cards.
“I’m not very good at finances,” he told the judge, without a hint of irony.
“Well, it’s time you learned,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Alicia Valle advised him.
Maghen, who was arrested Tuesday at his home, has not yet indicated if he plans to fight the charges.
According to the FBI, Maghen went to an ATM shortly after 5 a.m. May 2 and made two cash withdrawals that left him with a $1,200 overdraft.
Hours later, around 12:30 p.m., agents said Maghen wore “a mask resembling an elderly individual” and flashed what looked like a handgun when he stole
about $10,000 from a Chase Bank branch in the 700 block of North University Drive in Pembroke Pines.
Maghen wore ear buds and handed a note to the bank teller that said “something to the effect of, ‘This is a robbery. l am listening to a police scanner. Do not try anything or I will shoot you in the stomach,’ ” agents wrote in court records.
The robber flashed what looked like a semi-automatic handgun and “raised all 10 fingers in the air” when the teller asked how much he wanted. The teller handed over $10,000 and the man fled, authorities said.
That evening, records show that Maghen “spent $2,755 in a matter of approximately 55 minutes” in the casino at the Seminole Hard Rock complex near Hollywood, according to the FBI.
The next day, Maghen deposited $2,500 in his bank account in Hollywood, investigators said.
One week later, shortly before 9 a.m. Tuesday, Maghen donned the “old man” mask again and robbed $1,800 from a TD Bank branch in the 1300 block of West Palmetto Park Road in Boca Raton, agents said.
This time, Maghen handed over a note that claimed his “grandson” was sick and he needed $40,000 immediately, agents said. Maghen also yelled: “Hurry up, he’s going to die,” they said.
That crime was also recorded on surveillance video, which showed the robber wore latex gloves.
A GPS tracking device that had been hidden in the stolen cash was found discarded at a nearby strip mall. Agents obtained security video footage that showed a suspicious car in the area, prosecutor Randy Katz said.
Investigators then tracked the car, which belonged to Maghen’s landlord, to a Hollywood home where Maghen leased a room. Maghen “spontaneously” told agents he had driven “up north” to Boca Raton for some business related to starting a graffiti removal company, according to court records.
Agents said they found a white Styrofoam head — commonly used to ship and protect masks — a police scanner, two sets of ear buds and a box of latex gloves in Maghen’s room.
Two news reports about the Boca Raton bank robbery were displayed on Maghen’s computer screen in the house, agents said. His internet history revealed several recent searches for information about bank robbery “success and failure stories” and police scanner information, agents wrote in court records.
The woman who leased Maghen the room in her home told investigators that he “appeared to have recently obtained money and made numerous online purchases even though he does not have steady employment.”
Maghen told the judge he recently worked for three financial companies in Miami and Brooklyn, N.Y., but none of the jobs lasted more than a few months.
When the judge asked him how he lost his most recent employment in Miami Lakes, he told her the owner recently offered him “some constructive criticism.”
But the conversation didn’t end well.
“I was fired,” he told the judge. “I wasn’t taking it too well.”
Maghen, who is jailed in Broward County, is due back in court next week for a detention hearing.