A Boca Raton woman faces felony charges over a forged check linked to Florida’s Flagler Museum, police report.
An affidavit of probable cause from the Palm Beach Police Department details how Alexandra C. Kaiser, 31, was arrested on April 14 for allegedly depositing a counterfeit check drawn on the museum’s Northern Trust account into her personal JPMorgan Chase account earlier this year. Kaiser was charged with grand theft, uttering a forged check, and criminal use of personal identification information.
Museum officials later told police the check had not been authorized. Moreover, the legitimate check bearing the same number remained in the museum’s possession and had been issued to a different recipient.
Bank records obtained by CBS 12, through a subpoena, show that Kaiser was allegedly captured on surveillance footage at a JPMorgan Chase branch handing a check falsely attributed to the museum to a teller and then completing the transaction with her debit card. The funds were reportedly credited to the account and later withdrawn; however, the bank reversed the transaction after determining the check was fraudulent, taking back the museum’s money.
In a recorded phone interview with detectives on April 9 that was included in the affidavit, Kaiser admitted to depositing the check knowing it was counterfeit. She alleged that she was acting on behalf of an acquaintance who arranged the fraud and secured her cooperation with the promise that she would keep roughly half of the funds if the check cleared; the remainder would be sent to another party. According to police, her alleged crimes met the criteria for grand theft under state law, which includes offenses involving more than $750 and the uttering of a counterfeit financial instrument.
The Flagler Museum is housed in Whitehall, a 75-room Gilded Age palace listed as a National Historic Landmark and open to the public in Palm Beach, Florida. It takes its name from Henry Flagler, a preeminent businessman of the late 19th century who commissioned the palace from Carrère and Hastings, an American architecture firm responsible for some of the finest surviving examples of Beaux-Arts architecture.
The case is under review by the Florida State Attorney’s Office.
