Husband, Wife Steal Info From Manhattan Emergency Room Patients, Spend Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars at Saks: Prosecutors

A husband-and-wife pair have been arrested for allegedly stealing the personal information of dozens of Manhattan hospital patients to take control of their bank accounts and buy hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise at luxury retailers like Saks Fifth Avenue, authorities say.

Kyle Steed, 30, who was employed at Lenox Hill Hospital at the time of the thefts, allegedly stole the information of more than 80 emergency room patients between January 2014 and February 2015. According to court documents, he allegedly provided the stolen records to his wife, Krystle Steed, also 30, who allegedly used the data to take over customer credit card accounts at Bank of America and American Express through a variety of methods, including the impersonation of legitimate account holders.

In some instances, Krystle Steed allegedly circumvented security questions by claiming to be at a doctor's office where she required immediate access to a credit card number to pay a bill. In others, she is accused of claiming to be holiday shopping with grandchildren and demanded fraud prevention measures be lifted, becoming combative with customer service representatives and accusing them of biased treatment if they resisted.

Other times, Krystle Steed allegedly repeatedly placed calls inquiring about the same account until she reached a customer service representative susceptible to her methods of bypassing security questions.

Krystle Steed allegedly used the stolen information to place phone orders for hundreds of thousands of dollars of designer merchandise, including $6,000 Chanel handbags from Saks. In total, she successfully made more than $300,000 fraudulent purchases and tried to make more than $1 million in additional purchases at Saks Fifth Avenue, according to the indictment.

In at least one case, a patient died at Lenox Hill Hospital only two hours before Krystle Steed allegedly took control of the patient's bank account. Kyle Steed, who had been employed at Lenox Hill since 2011, was suspended without pay once the hospital learned he was the subject of a law enforcement investigation in April and he has since been fired, Lenox Hill Hospital said.

Lenox Hill Hospital said in a statement it has been cooperating full with law enforcement and will be promptly notifying all impacted patients of the theft.

"Protecting the privacy of patient information is a top priority that we take very seriously," Lenox Hill spokeswoman Barbara Osborn said. "The hospital continues to take aggressive steps to strengthen the security protocols we have in place to protect patient information."

Both Kyle and Krystle Steed, of the Bronx, are charged with a slate of felonies including attempted grand larceny and grand larceny, identity theft and criminal possession of stolen property.

Glenn Abolafia, an attorney for Krystle Steed, said his client did not enter a plea at a hearing Wednesday. She has two other open criminal cases in the Bronx and Manhattan.

An attorney for Kyle Steed could not immediately be reached for comment.

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