An ex-banker who bought a Porsche, other vehicles and three real estate properties after embezzling more than $1 million from an elderly Tucson customer is heading to federal prison, officials said.
Jacob On-Liu Roach, 38, was sentenced Friday to 40 months behind bars for bank fraud in a plea deal that requires him to liquidate or forfeit to the government possessions he acquired with the funds stolen from the 82-year-old victim, federal court records show. Authorities seized tens of thousands of dollars from several financial accounts from Roach.
Roach, of Oro Valley, a former business relationship banker at a Chase Bank branch in Tucson, stole a total of $1.25 million, an amount a federal prosecutor called “staggering,” according to federal court documents.
Tohono Chul Park, 7366 Paseo del Norte, is open every day. Get tickets online only at TohonoChul.org . October 2020.
By Johanna Eubank
Arizona Daily Star
“It was simply pure greed of a vast magnitude,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Wallace H. Kleindienst said in a sentencing memo, describing the defendant’s motive in U.S. District Court in Tucson.
Roach perpetrated the fraud by convincing the elderly client, who already had several accounts, to open a new one.
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He then began moving money from other accounts into the new account, for which Roach obtained a debit card to make withdrawals.
About two weeks after making his first withdrawal in October 2016, Roach quit his bank job but kept the scheme running by making online banking transfers, the prosecution said.
Roach has already sold off a $90,000 2015 Porsche 911, two other vehicles, a $190,000 property in Ogden, Utah, and two Tucson-area properties worth a total of about $350,000, and also forfeited about $115,000 collectively stashed in three personal bank accounts in order to repay the victim, the sentencing memo said.
Altogether, Roach still came up about $405,000 short, which Chase Bank paid to the customer who was victimized, the memo said.
Photos: A look back at Tucson-area streets
Broadway Road, Williams Addition, 1958
Nov 13, 2020
Recently paved and improved Broadway Road in Tucson looking east to Craycroft Road (just beyond the Union 76 gas station at left), where the Broadway pavement ended in 1958. At right, is the natural desert of the Williams Addition, an innovative 160-acre development with only 22 homes on large lots. Developer Lew McGinnis bought all but two of the homes by 1980. It is now Williams Centre.
Arizona Daily Star file
Interstate 10, 1960
Nov 13, 2020
Interstate 10 under construction at St Mary's Road in Tucson, ca. 1960.
Ray Manley by Carroll / Tucson Citizen.
Cherry Avenue, 1972
Nov 13, 2020
Arizona Stadium is off in the distance looking south along North Cherry Avenue on February 9, 1972. At the time the UA was proposing an addition to its football stadium adding another 10,600 seats to the east side of the structure that would involve permanently closing Cherry Avenue. It was also considering a 3,600-unit parking lot, all of which could cost around $11 million.
Bruce Hopkins / Tucson Citizen
Speedway Blvd., 1950
Nov 13, 2020
Speedway Blvd. looking east from County Club Road, Tucson, in 1950. The controversial "hump" down the middle of the road separated opposing lanes of traffic. It was removed in 1957.
Arizona Daily Star file
Court Street, 1900
Nov 13, 2020
Court Street in Tucson, c. 1900. City Hall is on the left (with flagpole) and San Augustin church is the peaked roof in distance at the end of the street. The building in the left foreground was used for the first mixed school taught by Miss Wakefield( later Mrs. Fish) and Miss Bolton.
Arizona Historical Society #635
Congress Street, 1933
Nov 13, 2020
Congress Street, looking west from 4th Avenue, Tucson, ca. 1933. Hotel Congress is at left. Today, Caffe Luce and One North Fifth Lofts have replaced the shops just beyond the Hotel Congress sign on the corner of 5th Ave. and Congress.
Arizona Daily Star file
Broadway Road, 1900s
Nov 13, 2020
Undated photo looking west on Broadway Road from the Santa Rita Hotel in Tucson. The cross street with man on horseback is Stone Ave. Photo likely from the early 1900s, since the Santa Rita was finished in 1904.
Tucson Citizen file
Congress St., 1920
Nov 13, 2020
Congress Street in Tucson, looking west from 6th Avenue in 1920.
Tucson Citizen file
Park Avenue, 1952
Nov 13, 2020
Definitely not a safe place to walk: Park Avenue at the Southern Pacific RR tracks in 1952, looking north into the Lost Barrio in Tucson. Park now crosses under the railroad tracks and links with Euclid Ave.
Bernie Sedley / Tucson Citizen
Electric street cars
Nov 13, 2020
Electric street cars replaced horse-drawn street cars in Tucson, 1906.
Tucson Citizen file
Toole Ave., 1958
Nov 13, 2020
City Laundry Co. of Tucson occupied the historic building at right, at 79 E. Toole Ave., since 1915. Prior to 1915, it was a brewery. It was one the oldest buildings in downtown Tucson. The building at left fronting Council Street was built by City Laundry in 1928 and ultimately became the main plant. Both buildings were demolished in 1958 to make way for a parking lot.
Tucson Citizen
Stone Ave., 1971
Updated
Nov 24, 2020
The lights of businesses on Stone Avenue in downtown Tucson, looking south from Ventura Street in July, 1971.
Lew Elliott / Tucson Citizen
22nd Street, 1962
Nov 13, 2020
Traffic tie-ups like this one in June, 1962, happened several times a day on 22nd Street at the Southern Pacific Railroad tracks in Tucson. Most of the motorists in this picture had to wait 10 minutes for the two-train switching operation. An overpass solved the problem in 1965.
Jon Kamman / Tucson Citizen
Benson Highway, 1972
Nov 13, 2020
This stretch of the Benson highway near South Palo Verde Road was bypassed after Interstate 10 was opened in 1969. It was just another string of businesses along the road that struggled to survive on August 14, 1972. The four-mile stretch was once a vital thoroughfare before the interstate system was created.
Manuel Miera / Tucson Citizen
Church Ave, 1966
Nov 13, 2020
Greyhound bus depot, left, was located on the northwest corner of Broadway Boulevard and Church Avenue around February 1966.
Art Grasberger / Tucson Citizen
Campbell Ave., 1960
Nov 13, 2020
Gridlocked traffic on Glenn Street, east of Campbell Avenue as thousands of people attended the opening of the new $2 million Campbell Plaza Shopping Center on April 7, 1960. Originally, the parking facilities was designed to handle 850 vehicles but it was overflowing for the event. The plaza is situated on 18 acres and has 18 tenants.
Tucson Citizen file
Interstate 19, 1964
Nov 13, 2020
Looking south on the Nogales Interstate Highway (now I-19) at the Ajo Way overpass on July 20, 1964.
Bill Hopkins / Tucson Citizen
Meyer Avenue, 1966
Nov 13, 2020
Street scene of South Meyer Avenue looking south from West Congress Street on June 26, 1966. All the buildings were demolished as part of the city's urban renewal project in the 1960s and 70s.
Mark Godfrey / Tucson Citizen
Cortaro Road, 1978
Nov 13, 2020
Cortaro General Store on the northwest corner of Cortaro Road and I-10 in December, 1978.
Joan Rennick / Tucson Citizen
Congress St., 1967
Nov 13, 2020
A man crosses East Congress Street at Arizona Avenue as this portion up to Fifth Avenue was falling on hard times with only one small shop still in business on May 3, 1967.
Art Grasberger / Tucson Citizen
Stone Avenue, 1955
Nov 13, 2020
The Stone Avenue widening project between Drachman and Lester streets in April, 1955. A Pioneer Constructors pneumatic roller is used to compact the gravel base for an 80-foot roadway. The four-block project cost $37,500.
Tucson Citizen
US 84A in Tucson, 1954
Nov 13, 2020
Westbound SR84A (now I-10) at Congress Street in 1954. In 1948, the Arizona State Highway Department approved the Tucson Controlled Access Highway, a bypass around downtown Tucson. It was named State Route 84A, and connected Benson Highway (US 80) with the Casa Grande Highway (US 84). By 1961, it was reconstructed as Interstate 10.
Tucson Citizen
Grant Road, 1962
Nov 13, 2020
The new Grant Road underpass at the Southern Pacific RR in December, 1962, as seen looking west on Grant Road east of the tracks and Interstate 10. The Tucson Gas and Electric generating station (no longer there) is at right.
Tucson Citizen
Grant Road, 1966
Nov 13, 2020
Grant Road, looking west at Campbell Ave. in 1966.
Tucson Citizen
Old Nogales Highway, 1966
Nov 13, 2020
Old Nogales Highway near Ruby Road in July, 1956.
Preston Yeager / Tucson Citizen
Oracle Road, 1925
Nov 13, 2020
This is a 1925 photo of the All Auto Camp on 2650 N Oracle Rd at Jacinto which featured casitas with the names of a state on the buildings. T
Tucson Citizen file photo
Oracle Road, 1950
Nov 13, 2020
This is a 1950 photo of the North Oracle Road bridge where it originally crossed over the Rillito River, west of the current bridge.
Reginald Russell / Tucson Citizen
Oracle Road, 1979
Nov 13, 2020
Area in 1979 along North Oracle Road near the entrance of the Oracle Road Self Storage at 4700 N Oracle Rd near the Rillito River which would now be north of the Tucson Mall. There is no apparent record of the Superior Automatic and Self Service Car Wash.
Darr Beiser/ Tucson Citizen
Oracle Road, 1975
Nov 13, 2020
Oracle Road, looking south from Suffolk Drive, in March, 1975. Then, it was a four-lane state highway on Pima County land. It was annexed by Oro Valley more than 30 years later.
Tucson Citizen
36th St., 1956
Nov 13, 2020
The Palo Verde Overpass south of Tucson (Southern Pacific RR tracks), looking East on 36th Street, in 1956.
Tucson Citizen
Interstate 10, 1966
Nov 13, 2020
Large billboards used to line the area along Interstate 10 (South Freeway) between West 22nd and West Congress Streets on May 5, 1966.
Dan Tortorell / Tucson Citizen
Catalina Highway, 1967
Nov 13, 2020
Snow clogs the Catalina Highway to Mt. Lemmon at 5,400 feet elevation on Feb. 18, 1967. Rock slides up ahead kept motorists from going further.
Tucson Citizen
Speedway Blvd., 1968
Nov 13, 2020
The new Gil's Chevron Service Station at 203 E Speedway on the northeast corner at North Sixth Avenue was open for business in March 1968. The photo is looking toward the southeast.
Tucson Citizen file
Catalina Highway, 1955
Nov 13, 2020
The Mt. Lemmon Highway on May 18, 1955.
Tucson Citizen
Tanque Verde Road, 1950s
Nov 13, 2020
In this undated photo taken in the late 1950s, the Tanque Verde Bridge over the Pantano Wash was allowing traffic to make its way toward the northeast side of town.
Tucson Citizen file
Craycroft and I-10, 1966
Nov 13, 2020
The TTT Truck Terminal at Craycroft Road and Benson Highway in Tucson in June, 1966. It's a mile east of the original, built in 1954.
Art Grasberger / Tucson Citizen
Congress St., 1980
Nov 13, 2020
Congress Street in Tucson, looking east from the Chase Bank building at Stone Ave. in August, 1980.
P.K. Weis / Tucson Citizen
Silverbell Road, 1975
Nov 13, 2020
Silverbell Road and Scenic Drive in Marana, looking south-southwest in 1975.
Manuel Miera / Tucson Citizen
Interstate 10, 1962
Nov 13, 2020
Interstate 10 (referred to as the "Tucson freeway" in newspapers at the time) under construction at Speedway Blvd. in the early 1960s. By Summer 1962, completed freeway sections allowed travelers to go from Prince Road to 6th Ave. The non-stop trip to Phoenix as still a few years away.
Ray Manley by Carroll
Alvernon Way, 1982
Nov 13, 2020
This is a July 2, 1982 photo of flooding along a Tucson street. Might be North Alvernon Way near Glenn Street.
Tucson Citizen file
6th Ave, 1960s
Nov 13, 2020
The Tucson Fire Department's Station No. 1 was once on the 100 block of South Sixth Avenue, across the street from the Pueblo Hotel and Apartments in the late 1960s. The fire station had been on the site from as early as 1909 and was next door to the Tucson Stables, which had a livery and sold feed for horses. The historic Santa Rita Hotel rises up behind the fire station. The entire block is now the Tucson Electric Power headquarters.
Mark Godfrey / Tucson Citizen
Ruthrauff Road, 1975
Nov 13, 2020
Shown in 1975, owboys drive 250 cattle down a frontage road near Ruthrauff Road in Tucson toward the finish line of "The Last Cattle Drive," a 350-mile journey that began in Willcox. The drive ended at the Nelson Livestock Aucions yard, 455 N. Highway Drive. The cattle was sold with proceeds going to the Muscular Dystrophy Assosciation.
Joan Rennick / Tucson Citizen
Main Ave., 1969
Nov 13, 2020
The newly aligned South Main Ave swerved its way along a barren stretch of landscape on May 9, 1969. Note the Redondo Towers in the background.
John Hemmer / Tucson Citizen
Congress St., 1970
Nov 13, 2020
Traffic along West Congress Street near the Santa Cruz River moves along on July 24, 1970. City authorities had decided to replace the bridge starting in the fall.
Ross Humphreys / Tucson Citizen
Contact reporter Carol Ann Alaimo at 573-4138 or calaimo@tucson.com . On Twitter: @StarHigherEd