David M. Ketchmark, Acting United States Attorney for the Western
District of Missouri, announced that a former employee of Jefferson Bank
in Jefferson City, Missouri was sentenced in federal court today for
embezzling more than $540,000 from the bank and another former employer
as well as for tax fraud.
Kelley Lee Steiner, 52, of Jefferson City, was sentenced by U.S.
Chief District Judge Fernando J. Gaitan to one year and one day in
federal prison without parole. The court also ordered Steiner to pay
$664,495 in restitution.
Steiner, who pleaded guilty on February 27, 2012, was employed by
Jefferson Bank as vice president and secretary to the board of directors
from June 14, 1999 to November 12, 2008. Steiner served as personal
executive assistant to former bank president Harold W. Westhues. By
pleading guilty today, Steiner admitted that she embezzled a total of
$487,199 from both the bank and from Westhues’ personal checking
account. Steiner also admitted that she embezzled $54,000 while employed
at Modern Business Systems. By failing to report the embezzled funds as
income on her federal tax returns from 2005 to 2008, Steiner caused tax
harm to the United States in the amount of $143,623.
Steiner had been given authority to write checks on Westhues’
personal account and sign his name to those checks in order to pay his
personal expenses. During an audit of Westhues’ personal checking
account, the bank discovered that Steiner had, without authority,
diverted funds totaling approximately $378,000 for her personal benefit,
which included writing checks to herself and paying her personal credit
card bills and her children’s college expenses.
Steiner also prepared paperwork for the bank to reimburse Westhues
for work-related expenses incurred by him that were typically charged to
his credit card. Investigation determined that Steiner had diverted
approximately $19,070 in valid reimbursement funds from Westhues and
used them to pay on her personal credit cards. Steiner also submitted
false documentation to the bank for work-related expenses purportedly
incurred by Westhues, which were then reimbursed by the bank, including
the re-submission of valid credit card statements which had already been
previously reimbursed by the bank. It was discovered that an additional
$29,947 had been diverted by Steiner to pay on her personal credit card
accounts.
Steiner was responsible for paying the board of directors for
participating in board meetings, audit meetings, and other special bank
meetings. Board members were paid $400 in cash for each meeting they
attended. During a review of board fees paid by the bank in 2008, a bank
officer identified approximately $60,400 in cash embezzled by Steiner
that had purportedly been paid as board fees.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Lynn. It was
investigated by the FBI, IRS-Criminal Investigation, the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation, and the Missouri Division of Finance.
This news release, as well as additional information about the office
of the United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, is
available online at http://www.justice.gov/usao/mow/index.html.
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