Feds charge Boston nanny with forging more than $280,000 of employers' checks

Stephanie Fox, 30, of Randolph, forged her Boston employers' names on checks to pay for Movado watches, a diamond-pendant necklace and trips to the Bahamas, Aruba, Hawaii, Newport, Cape Cod and Disney World, federal officials charge.

Fox was arrested yesterday on three counts of bank fraud after she allegedly forged her employer's signatures on 65 checks worth more than $280,000 over a year, the US Attorney's office reports. This comes after her 2011 arrest on charges she bounced checks across the state while working as a nanny on Beacon Hill.

In an affidavit, the FBI agent who investigated the case said Fox tried to hide the withdrawals from her employees, identified only as Victim 1 and Victim 2, of Boston, by taking their bank statements out of the mail and throwing them away.

On August 24, 2015, Victim 2 reviewed a recently received bank statement for a joint checking account at Bank of America, NA ("Bank of America"). ... Victim 2 stated that it was the first statement she could recall seeing for that account in a very long time. After noticing two checks drawn on the account for large amounts ($9,875 and $8,353), Victim 2 accessed the checking account online to review those checks. She saw that both of the checks were made payable to FOX and purported to have been signed by Victim 2. Victim 2 stated that none of the handwriting on those two checks, including the signature, was hers. Victim 2 investigated the account as far back as July 2014, which was the earliest available online. She discovered more than 50 checks payable to FOX which purported to bear her signature, but which in fact had been forged. Victim 2 stated that neither she nor her husband had ever given FOX permission to write a check on their bank account or sign either of their names on a check.

If convicted, Fox faces up to 30 years in federal prison.

Innocent, etc.