Florida woman charged after $45K counterfeit check tied to Flagler Museum
Alexandra Charlotte Kaiser, 31, was arrested April 14 by the Palm Beach Police Department.
Law and Crime
A Florida woman is facing felony charges after police said she deposited a counterfeit $45,851 check linked to the Flagler Museum into her personal bank account, according to court records.
Alexandra Charlotte Kaiser, 31, was arrested April 14 by the Palm Beach Police Department and charged with grand theft, uttering a forged check and criminal use of personal identification information, records obtained by Urgent Matter show.
Police said in a probable cause affidavit that the case began in late January, when officials at the Flagler Museum in Palm Beach were alerted by their bank to suspicious activity involving one of the institution’s accounts.
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Documents: Alexandra Kaiser records in Flagler Museum case
Records from Palm Beach County Circuit Court
Adam Schrader
The Flagler Museum is dedicated to the legacy of industrialist Henry Flagler, a founding partner of Standard Oil with John D. Rockefeller, and the history of the Gilded Age. It is housed in a 75-room mansion named “Whitehall” that is listed as a National Historic Landmark.
The museum’s chief operating officer, Christina Bernstein, told police that a Northern Trust representative flagged a counterfeit check, numbered 43631, that had been made payable to Kaiser for $45,851.17 and deposited into her JPMorgan Chase account.
According to the affidavit, the museum still had the original check in its possession, where it had been written out to Amazon, and said it had not authorized any payment to Kaiser.
Bank records obtained by subpoena showed the check was deposited in person on January 28 at a Chase branch, and that the funds cleared the same day. The full amount was later withdrawn on February 2 and returned to the bank, investigators said.
Surveillance footage from the bank showed a woman identified as Kaiser handing the check to a teller, inserting her debit card and entering a PIN before receiving a receipt and leaving, according to police.
Authorities said a Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputy who had previously arrested Kaiser in an unrelated case identified her as the person in the video.
In a recorded interview with police on April 9, Kaiser admitted to depositing the check, according to the affidavit.
She told investigators she had been approached by an acquaintance and arranged to meet an unknown man while in New York for a modeling photo shoot, where she was given the check.
Kaiser said she later deposited the check in Florida and believed that if it cleared, she would keep half of the money and send the remainder to the other party. She told police “it was dumb on her part” and said she had “a horrible year” and was not thinking clearly, according to the affidavit.
Police said the amount involved met the threshold for grand theft and that Kaiser knowingly used the museum’s financial information without authorization.
Court records show Kaiser was booked into the Palm Beach County jail and later released on her own recognizance following a probable cause hearing.
It was not immediately clear whether she has retained an attorney.
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