In what the U.S. Attorney's Office is calling "the ultimate inside job," former Citigroup vice president Gary Foster has been arrested and charged with embezzling more than $19 million from the bank between May 2009 and December 2010.

Foster, the former vice president of Citigroup's internal treasury finance department was arrested Sunday at JFK International Airport in New York after returning home on a flight from Bangkok. According to the Wall Street Journal, the 35-year-old Foster is charged with making "about $19.2 million in a series of transactions from Citigroup corporate accounts to his personal account at a unit of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co." over a 17 month period in 2009 and 2010. According to Bloomberg, prosecutors say that Foster "caused about $900,000 to be moved from Citigroup’s interest- expense account and about $14.4 million from its debt-adjustment account to the bank’s cash account" between July and December of 2010.

A Citigroup spokeswoman tells Bloomberg: "We are outraged by the actions of this former employee. Citi informed law enforcement immediately upon discovery of the suspicious transactions and we are cooperating fully to ensure Mr. Foster is prosecuted to the full extent of the law."

Foster will appear in court today. He could face a maximum of 30 years in prison if convicted of bank fraud.

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Ray Gustini