70-Year-Old Vault Teller Sentenced to 21 Months for Embezzlement

Dianne Richardson, 70, of Logan, W. Va., will begin her 21-month federal prison sentence in July for embezzling more than $200,000 over five and a half years from the $209 million Pioneer West Virginia Federal Credit Union.

U.S. District Judge Joseph R. Goodwin in Charleston, W. Va., sentenced Richardson Thursday. She was also ordered to serve five years of supervised release following her prison term and pay restitution of $222,000, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of West Virginia.

In exchange for her guilty plea to one felony count of embezzlement, prosecutors dropped 23 felony counts of making false entries.

Richardson was hired by the Charleston-based credit union as a vault teller in 2005. Starting in September 2013, Richardson began her embezzlement. In court documents, prosecutors said she had sole access to the vault at Pioneer’s South Charleston branch, which enabled her to conceal her crimes through early 2019.

Prosecutors said Richardson made multiple false entries in the credit union’s books and records to conceal cash shortages at the Pioneer branch. Specifically, she falsified cash-in and cash-out tickets, force balanced her teller drawer, falsified cash reconcilement reports, and falsified teller drawer and vault daily cash balancing reports, among others.

On Feb. 26, 2019, unlike previous audits, the internal auditor became concerned because of the small cash balance in the vault. Prosecutors noted Richardson created a false entry mere minutes prior before the auditor arriving at the branch and then reversed that false entry minutes after the audit was finished.

A final audit revealed Richardson embezzled a total of $222,000 over 65 months.

Prosecutors said the former teller spent the credit union’s funds on personal expenses, to help her granddaughter with school and to make donations to her church.

“Richardson used her skill and education to create a sophisticated scheme to defraud a federal credit union,” prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memo to the federal judge. “Richardson embezzled the funds simply due to her greed. Richardson also was afforded a level of trust and additional responsibility due to her number of years of employment and what was perceived as an outstanding employee. That additional trust granted her access to execute her scheme.”

Richardson’s attorney, Robert B. Kuenzel, argued for a home confinement sentence because of her health problems. He also noted her crime was non-violent, she had no criminal history and that she was not a threat to the community.

Federal prosecutors said a prison sentence was necessary, in part, because Richardson’s conduct reflected an “utter abdication of the trust placed in her by Pioneer.”

Kuenzel, however, said prosecutors were “placing a spin” on Richardson’s position.

“She was NOT a bank executive; was NOT a branch manager; was NOT even a ‘lead’ or ‘head’ teller; and did not receive any additional compensation for any increased role; rather, she was just a ‘teller’; was treated as a teller, was paid as a teller and was in all respects a mere teller and nothing more,” Kuenzel wrote in his memo to the judge.