FORMER FARMINGTON RESIDENT
ADMITS ROBBING BRANFORD BANK

David B. Fein, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that JAMES BIEU, 51, formerly of Farmington, pleaded guilty today before Senior United States District Judge Ellen Bree Burns in New Haven to one count of bank robbery.

According to court documents and statements made in court, at approximately 11:40 a.m. on January 3, 2011, BIEU entered the Peoples United Bank located in a Super Stop & Shop grocery store at 22 Leetes Island Road in Branford.  He then approached a bank teller and demanded “give me good money or die.”  The teller gave BIEU $8,439.

Judge Burns has scheduled sentencing for April 20, 2012, at which time BIEU faces a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years and a fine of up to $250,000.

BIEU has been incarcerated since January 29, 2011, after he was arrested by the West Haven Police Department.

This case is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with the assistance of the Branford, Hamden and West Haven Police Departments.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Elizabeth A. Latif.