The former head teller for the $281 million Essential Federal Credit Union in Plaquemine, La. was sentenced last week to 10 months in prison for stealing $508,000 from her teller drawer over four years.
U.S. District Judge Brian A. Jackson in Baton Rouge also ordered Whittney M. Lathan on Dec. 3 to pay $508,182 and forfeit $309,350 cash, which she deposited in the nearby $539 million Campus Federal Credit Union in Baton Rouge after stealing the money from Essential, according to court documents.
Lathan pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud in September after she was charged with the felony offense in July.
She began stealing cash in January 2009, but the theft was not uncovered until July 2013 when the credit union's accounting staff examined general ledger accounts to reconcile accounts. During this process, the accounting staff identified a debit in the credit union's suspense general ledger for $567,963, according to court documents.
Accounting staff members also discovered Lathan created the debit to the general ledger by issuing and applying seven cashier's checks to the general ledger negative check balance in March 2013. While the checks totaled $567,963 and resulted in the elimination of the huge negative check balance Lathan carried as a teller, the checks were fake.
Credit union auditors also examined Lathan's daily transactions from Jan. 2, 2009 to June 29, 2013, which revealed there were 277 instances in which she stole cash from the drawer that amounted to $508,182.
In all 277 transactions, auditors found Lathan falsely reported negotiables to bank transactions in order to zero out her negative check balance.
She also falsely represented in her daily batch reports that checks had been received when in fact they had not been received. That caused a variance in the amounts posted on the credit union's general ledger and the actual funds received by Essential, according to court records.
Richard Williams, president/CEO of Essential, did not return a phone call from CU Times on Thursday seeking comment about this case.
Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to CUTimes.com, part of your ALM digital membership.
Your access to unlimited CUTimes.com content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking credit union news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Weekly Shared Accounts podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical coverage of the commercial real estate and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, GlobeSt.com and ThinkAdvisor.com
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
