Teller Faces Sentencing for Stealing $40,000 From Member’s Account
The discovery of fraud by Virginia Credit Union’s fraud risk management team leads to prosecution and conviction.
A former part-time teller for the $5 billion Virginia Credit Union in North Chesterfield is expected to be sentenced in March for her role in stealing $40,000 from a member’s account.
Ya’Minah Unique Taylor pleaded guilty last week in U.S. District Court at Richmond to one felony count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, according to court documents.
Soon after Virginia CU’s fraud risk management team discovered Taylor’s unauthorized activity, she was fired and it was reported to federal authorities for further investigation and prosecution, Glenn Birch, the credit union’s director of public relations, said. A second employee also was fired for violating company policy, he said.
In April, Taylor was approached by an unidentified co-conspirator and agreed to use her position at a credit union to steal funds from members’ accounts in exchange for receiving a cut of the stolen money. A second co-conspirator was also involved in this scheme.
One of the co-conspirators provided the names of specific Virginia CU member accounts to target for fraudulent withdrawals, federal prosecutors wrote in court documents.
Taylor printed 16 fraudulent counter checks drafted on the accounts of three Virginia CU members. She also printed their signature cards that allowed one of her co-conspirators to forge member signatures on the phony counter checks that are used at branches to complete banking transactions.
Taylor and her co-conspirators negotiated a $40,000 bogus check, in part, because she personally processed the transaction and then deposited the check into a bank account controlled by the co-conspirators. The entire $40,000 was withdrawn through ATM transactions, checks and debit card purchases, prosecutors said.
Birch said the credit union promptly restored the member’s funds after the fraud was discovered.
Court documents showed that Taylor and the co-conspirators attempted to deposit a second fake check for $26,000 and a third phony check for $8,500.
“Our investigation revealed there were a few other attempts to remove money from member accounts, but they were not successful,” Birch said. “We closed all affected accounts and provided new account numbers to all victims.”