It may seem obvious that displaying one’s ill-gotten gains in public is not the wisest way to evade the long arm of the law.
For one would-be criminal mastermind, however, the lure of ‘likes’ appears to have proved irresistible.
29-year-old Arlando Henderson was hired back in April at a branch of Wells Fargo in Charlotte, North Carolina, for a job that involved handling deposits made by customers to the bank’s vault. But while initiative is usually valued in an employee, he perhaps ended up showing a little too much.
According to an indictment unsealed last week in federal court, Henderson proceeded over the next few months to help himself to more than $88,000, the Charlotte Observer reports. He also cooked the books in an effort to hide his newly found income stream.
However, Henderson was not as methodical in covering his tracks during his free time. He began to publicize his growing magic money tree in Facebook and Instagram posts, the indictment says.
Pictures from his social media accounts show Henderson living the high life, frequently posing with thick wads of cash in his hands or strewn on the floor.
In one series of photographs, Henderson poses with a sparkling white Mercedes-Benz. He drove it off the lot at a Northlake dealership in Charlotte in July, according to the indictment, after handing over a $20,000 down-payment in $100 bills.
In another selfie, Henderson grasps a stack of bills in one hand above a caption reading, ‘I make it look easy but this shyt really a PROCESS’.
That process is now gathering pace. Henderson was arrested by FBI agents in San Diego on December 4, and made his initial court appearance two days later. He is due back in court for another hearing today.