Rochester woman accused of defrauding elderly landlord of $252,000 – Finger Lakes Daily News

A Rochester woman faces 30 years in prison after allegedly defrauding her elderly landlord out of tens of thousands of dollars.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas M. Testani, who is handling the case, stated that according to the complaint, between July 2020 and February 2023, Nahtahna Castner, 45, gained the trust of an elderly victim in her mid-90s who granted her access to her home. The victim owned a duplex and lived on one side while Castner lived on the other. Castner allegedly used her position of trust to gain access to the victim's personal identification and banking information. She is then accused of withdrawing large sums of cash from ATMs, often near the daily ATM limit, conducting peer-to-peer transfers to her own personal bank account, and making unauthorized purchases using the victim's debit card.

The complaint states that Castner defrauded the victim of approximately $252,672.97 from two different banking institutions. In addition, Castner used the victim's personal information to submit at least three unauthorized credit card applications that were approved with credit limits of $2,000, $600, and $500. Castner then used the credit cards and defrauded the three financial institutions of approximately $3,668.11. Castner used the money she stole from the victim for various purchases, including travel, including a trip to Hawaii, hotels, car repairs, insurance, and car payments.

On January 6, 2022, the victim was hospitalized, but her family was not notified and did not find out until several days later. When the family arrived, Castner was already there. She referred to herself as the victim's granddaughter and made the medical decisions on the victim's behalf. Still unsure of Castner's full care of Victim A, and believing that she had helped Victim A with various tasks, family members offered to give Castner some money for her help during the hospital stay. Castner insisted that she did not want money, telling them she helped “out of the goodness of her heart.” However, the victim's son decided to go to the bank to get money anyway, after which he discovered that the bank accounts were empty. Castner immediately moved out of the duplex without notice and did not contact anyone else in the victim's family. When the victim spoke to his mother about the missing money, he said it must have been “Tana”.

The victim died on February 23, 2023.

Only two months earlier, the balance of their accounts at the two banks was only around $99.59.

Castner was charged in a criminal complaint with wire fraud, bank fraud and aggravated identity theft.

The fact that a defendant is accused of a crime constitutes merely an accusation, and the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

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