Woman Charged With Trying to Defraud Bank of More Than $133,000

Lexington County deputies arrested a Georgia woman this week who is suspected of fraudulently obtaining $1.5 million dollars from banks in nine states.

Deputies say Vivienne Kaye Bloch, 52, of Decatur, Ga. is part of a criminal ring that has submitted forged documents at banks across the country to make transfers from bank accounts of businesses to unauthorized accounts. 

Bloch entered the Bank of America branch at 4300 St. Andrews Road around 10 a.m. Monday, according to the sheriff's department. She presented a forged document for a wire transfer in the amount of $133,642.28, along with a counterfeit California driver’s license that falsely identified her as another woman. Deputies also say she forged the name from the fake license to the wire transfer document.

Fraud investigators with Bank of America asked employees at the bank to report the incident to the sheriff's department. Deputies arrived and detained Bloch. They later arrested her with the help of a detective from Georgia and the U.S. Secret Service. 

Bloch is under investigation in Georgia, Illinois, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Michigan, Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina in cases in which someone submitted forged wire transfer documents, cashier’s checks or cash withdrawals at banks, Sheriff James Metts said.

She is being held at the Lexington County Detention Center on a bail of $600,000.

Metts asks anyone with information about additional criminal activity involving Bloch to contact the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department at 803-785-8230 or CrimeStoppers at 1-888-CRIME-SC.