Ardmore Man Pleads Guilty to Bank Theft, Embezzlement, and Misapplication

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, announced that RICHARD PAUL GEURIN, 48, of Ardmore, Oklahoma, pled guilty to Bank Theft, Embezzlement and Misapplication, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 656.
The charge arose from an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The defendant was indicted in August 2014.
The Indictment alleged that from on or about February 3, 2011, until on or about February 24, 2014, in the Eastern District of Oklahoma, defendant RICHARD PAUL GEURIN, being an officer, director, agent, or employee of, or connected in a capacity with, First Bank & Trust of Duncan, Oklahoma, a bank whose deposits are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, with intent to injure and defraud the said First Bank & Trust of Duncan, Oklahoma, willfully misapplied, embezzled, abstracted, and purloined more than $1,000.00 of the moneys, funds, assets or securities entrusted to the custody or care of First Bank & Trust of Duncan, Oklahoma, in that the defendant withdrew cash from the accounts of certain bank customers and misapplied, embezzled, abstracted and purloined the funds for his own use or benefit.
The Honorable Steven P. Shreder, Magistrate Judge in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, in Muskogee, accepted the guilty plea and ordered the completion of a presentence report.
The statutory range of punishment is up 30 years and $1,000,000.00 fine. The defendant will remain on bond pending sentencing.
Assistant United States Attorney Rob Wallace represented the United States.

Broken Arrow Woman Sentenced for Bank Fraud and Tax Evasion in Oklahoma

A former manager of a credit union was sentenced on Tuesday to serve 27 months for each count of bank fraud and tax evasion, announced U.S. Attorney Danny C. Williams Sr. for the Northern District of Oklahoma and Special Agent in Charge R. Damon Rowe of the Dallas field office for the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation.

Eva Barroso, 54, of Broken Arrow, was sentenced to serve 27 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Chief Judge Gregory K Frizzell for one count each of bank fraud and tax evasion. At the time of the scheme, Barroso worked as a commercial services manager for Oklahoma Central Credit Union (OCCU) where her duties included marketing and servicing commercial loans. The Court entered a criminal forfeiture money judgment against the defendant in the amount of $238,177.42 representing proceeds obtained as a result of his bank fraud scheme. Barroso was also ordered to make restitution in the amount of $238,177.42 to OCCU and $57,360.50 to the Internal Revenue Service.

According to court documents, from July 2, 2009 to March 19, 2012, as part of the scheme, Barroso fabricated at least three false loans in the name of nominee entities and individuals without the knowledge and authorization of the purported borrower. Barroso admitted that she made various material false representations in obtaining these loans. She used the proceeds of these loans for her own personal benefit, including making ATM withdrawals at various casinos. To further the scheme, Barroso used some of the money to make payments on prior loans.

In addition, during the 2010 calendar year, Barroso willfully evaded a large part of income tax by failing to report to the Internal Revenue Service a total of $152,098.13 which was the money she fraudulently obtained from the scheme.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jeffrey Gallant and Catherine Depew on behalf of the United States.

Bank officer indicted on federal charges in Oklahoma

U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Oklahoma Mark Green announced Wednesday that Richard Paul Geurin has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Muskogee on five charges: bank theft, embezzlement and misapplication, false entry in the books of a federally insured bank, bank fraud and forfeiture.
Geurin, who served as an officer of First Bank and Trust of Duncan’s Ardmore location, is accused of committing the crimes between Feb. 3, 2011, until on or about Feb. 24 of this year. The indictment alleges Geurin “with intent to injure and defraud the said First Bank & Trust of Duncan, Oklahoma, willfully misapplied, embezzled, abstracted, and purloined more than $1,000.00 of the moneys, funds, assets or securities entrusted to the custody or care of First Bank & Trust of Duncan, Oklahoma, in that the defendant withdrew cash from the accounts of certain bank customers and misapplied, embezzled, abstracted and purloined the funds for his own use or benefit with the intent to deceive an officer of First Bank & Trust of Duncan, Oklahoma.” In addition, the indictment accuses the longtime Ardmore resident of knowingly making “false entries in the books, reports, or statements of First Bank & Trust of Duncan, Oklahoma,” and creating “false transaction documents showing customers withdrawing cash from customer accounts, when in truth and in fact, as the defendant well knew, the withdrawals from customer accounts were by and for the benefit of the defendant.”
The charges are based on an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation which began in February. At the time, rumors circulated Geurin had been escorted from his office and was removed from his position.
Multiple attempts Wednesday to speak with Glen Jones, Carter County president of First Bank & Trust of Duncan, concerning the federal indictment against Geurin, were unsuccessful.
If convicted, Geurin faces up to 30 years in a federal prison and/or a fine of up to $1 million.

Former bank officer owes $45K

A former officer at a Durant bank was sentenced Tuesday to eight months of home detention after pleading guilty to embezzlement. Daniel James Abbott, 32, also must pay more than $45,000 in restitution. Abbott was an officer at Durant’s First National Bank and Trust between October 2011 and September 2013 when he took the money, according to prosecutors. The Calera resident, who pleaded guilty in May, also will be on probation for three years.

The United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, announced that DANIEL JAMES ABBOTT, age 32, of Calera, Oklahoma, was sentenced to 3 years of probation, 8 months of home detention and was ordered to pay $45,524.47 in restitution for Embezzlement By Bank Officer Or Employee, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 656.
The charge arose from an investigation by the Durant Police Department and the United States Secret Service. The defendant pled guilty in March 2014.


The Information alleged that from on or about October 26, 2011 to on or about September 18, 2013, in the Eastern District of Oklahoma, the defendant, being an officer and employee of the First United Bank and Trust, Durant, Oklahoma, a bank whose deposits are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, with intent to injure and defraud First United Bank and Trust, willfully misapplied and embezzled the moneys, funds and assets belonging to said bank and entrusted to the custody and care of the defendant as an officer and employee in an amount exceeding $1,000.00.


The Honorable Ronald A. White, District Judge in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, presided over the hearing.

Assistant United States Attorney Chris Wilson represented the United States.

Former Bartlesville, Oklahoma Bank Employee Faces Federal Embezzlement Charges

A former Bartlesville bank employee, charged with embezzling $147,000 from the customers of Osage Federal Bank, was arraigned this week in Tulsa federal court.

Patricia Swearingin, 66, was initially charged in Washington County in January 2011 after the son of a victim contacted the bank about money missing from a certificate of deposit his mother had.

Bartlesville's Examiner Enterprise reports those charges were dismissed in April 2012 according federal prosecutors because of a subpoena records from an Indian casino.

The U.S. Attorney's Office filed charges against Swearingin in October.

An affidavit filed in Washington County in 2011 stated bank officials told investigators Swearingin had embezzled somewhere between $50,000 and $100,000 from at least four customers at Osage Bank in 2010.

In the affidavit, Swearingin told police that all the money was won at a casino.

Former Bank Employee To Face Sentencing in Arkansas

A former Fort Smith bank official should be sentenced to between 41 and 51 months in prison, according to a memorandum filed by prosecutors in U.S. District Court.

Mary Kay Newman, 45, who worked at First National Bank in Fort Smith for almost 23 years, pleaded guilty in March to embezzlement and misapplication of funds by a bank employee and is scheduled to appear before District Court Judge P.K. Holmes III on Aug. 15 for sentencing.

A memorandum, filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyra Jenner, argues the court should follow the sentencing advisory guideline laid out in a pre-sentence report based on Newman’s repeated commission of fraud and deceit on multiple parties — Pharis and multiple banks — and the seriousness of the offense.

In 2009, Fort Smith resident Ruby Pharis purchased two certificates of deposit — totaling about $530,000 — at Chambers Bank in Fort Smith. When she renewed them a year later, the combined value was about $549,000.

When she required surgery and hospitalization in 2010, Pharis, 90, told federal investigators that power of attorney was necessary for Newman to pay Pharis’ bills while she was medically incapacitated, but she never remembered signing anything that gave Newman authority to cash checks, redeem the CDs or use her money for Newman’s personal benefit, according to a plea agreement.

Pharis and her late husband came to know Newman as customers of the Phoenix Village branch of First National Bank, where Newman worked from 2002 until she was fired Dec. 29, 2011.

According to court documents, on Jan. 19, 2011, Newman converted Pharis’ CDs at Chambers Bank in Fort Smith into six cashier’s checks totaling almost $560,000, kept $160,000 for her personal benefit and purchased two CDs in Pharis name for $300,000 and $100,000, according to court documents.

In March 2011, Newman converted the $100,000 to a cashier’s check, cashed it at First National and kept the funds, minus penalty for early withdrawal.

In June 2011, Newman cashed in the $300,000 CD held at Chambers and opened a savings account in Pharis’ name at First National, before withdrawing $85,000 for her own use between June and November 2011.

The missing money was discovered in December 2011, when Pharis became concerned she wasn’t receiving bank statements from First National, according to court documents.

While Newman admits embezzling more than $300,000 from Pharis, she disputes the government’s claim the amount was almost $560,000.

According to an auditor at First National Bank, all of Pharis’ funds have been recovered, minus about $8,800 in lost interest and early withdrawal penalties and about $2,500 in legal expenses, according to court documents.

In addition to requesting Holmes sentence Newman to between 41 and 51 months in prison, in the memorandum, Jenner said she will also presented evidence Newman owes a little more than $18,000 in restitution for lost interest, early withdrawal penalties, attorney’s fees and other expenses incurred by Pharis’ estate.

Pharis died March 25, less than a week after Newman pleaded guilty.

A representative of Pharis’ estate will testify Pharis never recovered from Newman’s betrayal, which caused her heartbreak and depression that severely diminished her quality of life, according to the memorandum.

Newman is free on a signature bond while she awaits sentencing.

Former Bank Officer Faces Prison, Millions in Restitution for Embezzlement in Oklahoma

FROM TULSAWORLD.COM

A former bank officer has been sentenced to four years and nine months in prison and ordered to pay millions of dollars in restitution after pleading guilty in what a federal prosecutor called “the largest internal bank theft” in the history of the Tulsa-based Northern District of Oklahoma.


Janice Mora Adams, a former senior vice president for private banking and internal control officer of Peoples Bank, stated in court documents that she initiated fraudulent loans and accounts as part of a scheme in which she embezzled funds from May 2004 until February 2010.



Adams, 55, pleaded guilty Feb. 28 to a charge that alleged she misapplied money over the nearly six-year period. The Broken Arrow resident stipulated in her plea agreement that her conduct caused a loss to the bank of $3.05 million. However, Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles McLoughlin said Tuesday that, due to its insurance coverage, the bank itself only sustained a loss of about $4,000.



Adams also pleaded guilty in February to five tax crimes connected to the money she embezzled but did not report on her federal income taxes.



McLoughlin said in a court document that what Adams did amounted to a “very complex and complicated looting of Peoples Bank.”



He said there were several different elements of the scheme, but that the primary method of embezzlement involved Adams creating fictitious loans based on information obtained from existing accounts of bank customers without those customers’ knowledge.



McLoughlin said, by the time it was over, Adams was responsible for “the largest internal bank theft” in the history of Tulsa’s Northern District. Adams’ purchases included nearly $250,000 on items such as cosmetics, perfume and clothes from Dillard’s; more than $450,000 on jewelry from Moody’s; more than $66,000 on merchandise from White House Black Market and nearly $70,000 on goods from the Pottery Barn.



The bank’s news release stated it “remains financially strong and has strengthened its internal controls to (ensure) that improper activity is uncovered and stopped at the earliest possible date.”



U.S. District Judge Claire Eagan ordered Monday that Adams pay more than $3 million in restitution to the bank’s insurer as well as $859,474 to the Internal Revenue Service for tax years 2005 through 2009. Adams was also ordered by Eagan to be under court supervision for five years after being released from prison.



Eagan ordered Adams, who is on bond, to report to prison by Sept. 12.

Adams pleaded guilty in February to an amended charge filed Jan. 19 by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Tulsa.




She also agreed to pay a criminal money judgment of more than $2.6 million.



The amount is meant to represent the money she misapplied, reduced by $317,289 in jewelry that she already has forfeited.



Adams also agreed to forfeit more than $24,000 in lieu of two vehicles obtained with proceeds of her crime.

Oklahoma Bank Teller Charged With Pocketing Cash From Customers

FROM KOTV.COM -

An Oklahoma City bank teller is charged with embezzlement after police say she pocketed customers' cash deposit by filling out fraudulent deposit slips.


According to police, 23-year-old Nicole Kemp, a bank teller at the Oklahoma Fidelity Bank, had conducted 14 fraudulent cash deposit transactions.

Investigators say Kemp would alter the amount of cash deposit after the customers had left by filling out a new deposit slip with lower amount of cash, and alter the deposit total in the bank's computer to show the lower deposit amount, in order to cover up the theft.

Police say Kemp would then pocket the customer's cash.

On May 7, a customer with the Victory Bible Baptist Church went to Kemp to deposit $1,305, including $229 in cash, and $1,076 in checks. However, he later noticed on his bank statement that the amount of cash deposited into his account only showed $69.

The customer then contacted the bank and authorities conducted investigations into the incident. It turns out the bank teller, Kemp, had filled out a new deposit slip for only $69 after the customer had left, and changed the amount in the bank's computer to show only $69.

The bank provided police with security video and copies of checks and deposit slips.



Kemp is now charged with unauthorized use of a computer network for the purpose of obtaining money and other things of value, by use of a false or fraudulent presentation.



The total loss to the Oklahoma Fidelity Bank was $1,084, according to police.

Police: Woman embezzled $30,000 from Bartlesville, Oklahoma bank

A Bartlesville woman, an employee of a Bartlesville bank, is accused of embezzling nearly $30,000 from the accounts of four elderly bank customers.




Patricia L. Swearingin, 53, seen in Washington County District Court Thursday, faces charges of 10 counts of embezzlement by an employee and one count of financial exploitation of elderly persons.



During the hearing, the judge set her bond to $5,000 with a condition of no contact with Osage Federal Bank. She posted bond late that afternoon.



Osage Federal Bank Chief Executive Officer Mark White told BarlesvilleLIVE on Friday Swearingin's employment was terminated a month ago.



"She was finished as soon as we found out what we determined were some suspicious activities had been investigated," he said. "That was the end of the employment."



White said all customers were immediately reimbursed.



According to the affidavit, the investigation that led up to her began on Dec. 9 when a police investigator went to Osage Federal Bank located on the 3300 block of S.E. Frank Phillips Blvd to speak with the chief financial officer about a possible embezzlement case at the bank.



The officer told police that Swearingin, who had been employed with the bank more than 10 years, had embezzled between $50,000 and $100,000 from the bank.



He said he learned of the activity after receiving an e-mail from a bank customer's son reporting money missing from his mother's CD.



Learning that Swearingin had been the only individual in the bank to order checks for the account, he pulled video surveillance for the time when a check was cashed from the account and saw Swearingin write a check in her office and walk it to the drive-through window where it was then cashed. The officer told police no car was at the drive-though, nor did the customer visit the bank that day.



Further investigation by the bank officer revealed “many more such transactions of … elderly people with similar accounts” being done. He explained that in each case, the money taken was interest off of accounts from CDs.



The police investigator, returning to the bank on Dec. 27, was given a spreadsheet listing unauthorized withdrawals as confirmed by the owners of the accounts. A total of ten checks were cashed between August and November — the loss from the bank totaling $29,397.29, according to the police report.



The report said the average age of the alleged victims was 82.6 years-old.



Through a warrant served to search bank records for Swearingin's account at another bank, the investigator found that of the 13 deposits made from Aug. 20 to Nov. 24, eight deposits were made the same day money was taken from Osage Federal Bank. Between those dates, a total of $19,950 was deposited “on or within a couple days of the theft at Osage Bank,” said the affidavit.



Police next spoke to Swearingin who denied any wrongdoing. She reportedly said she won the money at a casino and said she had deposited the money into the above mentioned bank account “so she could claim a loss with the government for gambling by writing the casino a check at the casino.”



Asked if she was saying she was defrauding the government, she reportedly said “not to put it that way.”



Police further interviewed the drive-through window tellers who had cashed the checks for Swearingin. They all said Swearingin would ask them to cash the checks — that she would explain she had a customer waiting and the tellers in the lobby were busy.