In a harrowing case highlighting how important it is to prevent identity theft before it happens, a former JP Morgan Chase & Co. bank employee pleaded guilty Friday to stealing more than $1.1 million from the bank and its customers and stealing the identities of four victims between February 2008 and February 2009. Hao “Howie” Wang, 28, former business banker from Newark, NJ, was arrested at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey on Nov. 17 and indicted by a grand jury in New York in December for identity theft and 28 counts of larceny fraud. He was being held without bail for fear that would flee to his sometime home in China.

Wang, from Newark, N.J., worked at a retail bank branch on Park Avenue in Manhattan from December 2007 to July 2008 and used a variety of methods to steal money from clients, according to prosecutors.

In one instance, Wang applied for a $100,000 loan from JPMorgan using the name of a bank client without that individual’s knowledge or authorization. He created false bank documents in the name of this victim, who was not a JPMC customer, causing the bank records to appear as the victim opened the account and applied for the loan himself. He then spent $10,000 via debit card purchases and cash withdrawals and then transferred the rest to offshore accounts, according to his plea and court documents.

On another occasion, he set up a fake account pretending to be a JPMorgan customer, and transferred $250,000 from the client’s authorized account into the falsified account. He then moved more than $200,000 of the money to foreign bank accounts, spending the remaining $46,000 on a Audemars Piguet watch.

He also allegedly used the personal info of two JPMorgan customers to transfer $139,536 and $700,000 from their accounts into his accounts outside the country.

He pleaded guilty today in New York state Supreme Court to grand larceny in the first degree, identity theft in the first degree, falsifying business records in the first degree, forgery in the second degree and scheme to defraud in the first degree, the office of District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. said in a statement. All told, Wang bilked four clients out of almost $1.2 million.

Prosecutors had asked for a minimum of three years in prison. Instead he could serve as little as two, according to the NYPost. He will serve between 2 and 6 years in prison and make full restitution to his victims, according to the terms of his plea agreement with prosecutors. He could have faced as long as 25 years on one of the grand larceny counts he faced had he been convicted at trial.

“The defendant took advantage of his access to the confidential files and accounts of customers who entrusted their money to JPMorgan Chase & Co.,” said District Attorney Cyrus Vance. “Last year, we formed the Major Economic Crimes Bureau, a consolidation and enhancement of our existing resources, to fight these kinds of crimes. This Office remains committed to bringing to justice employees at financial institutions who abuse their positions to commit larceny.”

Wang was ordered to return to jail pending his next court appearance, for a pre-sentencing report, which is set for Aug. 4 before New York State Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus, according to court records.