A New Mexico bank manager and a Kansas loan officer are both accused of embezzling and face legal action in the next couple weeks. Among other bank crime cases is a bank director who faked his own death.
Former Bank of the West employee Angela Giddings has a change of plea hearing scheduled for Feb. 13 in Albuquerque, N.M. Giddings was arraigned on Dec. 18 on federal embezzlement and identity theft charges, according to a news release issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico.
The indictment alleges that Giddings committed the crimes when she was employed as a customer service manager for Bank of the West. Giddings has been accused of withdrawing and transferred funds ranging from $15,000 to $60,000 from the accounts of customers — including two Indian tribal organizations — without authorization and for her own use. Giddings has entered a not guilty plea.
A trial has been scheduled for March 10 in the case of a former Kansas TARP bank loan officer indicted on embezzlement charges. Brian W. Harrison, appeared in federal court in Wichita on Jan. 5 over charges including embezzlement, money laundering and making false entries in bank records, according to a news release issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Kansas.
Harrison allegedly made false statements to Farmers’ Bank to hide the poor performance of the loans he made when he was the president and loan officer at Farmers Bank & Trust in Great Bend. Harrison’s purported scheme is believed to have cost taxpayers $560,000 on their TARP investment in the bank. Harrison pled not guilty on Jan. 5 and posted an unsecured bond of $25,000.
The restitution hearing for the former Georgia bank director who faked his own death has been rescheduled from Feb. 1; but, a new date has not yet been set. Aubrey Lee Price has already been sentenced to 30 years, according to a news release issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia.
Price was accused of masterminding a Ponzi scheme that resulted in a million of dollars of losses to Price’s investors and led to the collapse of the federally insured bank he was on the board of — Montgomery Bank & Trust.
When the scheme came to light, Price reportedly sent “suicide letters” in which he admitted he had defrauded MB&T Bank and his individual investors and claiming that he planned to kill himself.
Price was arrested about a year later, during a routine traffic stop in Georgia where he presented false identification. Price has also been sentenced to serve a term of five years of supervised release and ordered to forfeit a total of $51 million, representing the proceeds of his crimes. An amount for restitution has yet to be set.
Two men have been sentenced in a scheme to defraud a Colorado-based TARP bank. On Oct. 3, Christopher Tumbaga and Brian Headle were each ordered to serve three years in federal prison, followed by four years of supervised release and to pay a little more than $1 million in restitution to the federal government over allegations of swindling Colorado East Bank & Trust.
Tumbaga was a loan officer at the bank. He was sentenced for bank fraud and illegally receiving kickbacks and co-defendant Headle for corruptly influencing a bank officer. Tumbaga pleaded guilty in March. Headle pleaded guilty in June. The two men were high school pals.
An Ohio man sentenced to 11 years for defrauding an Ohio credit union must also pay back $15 million in restitution, according to a judgment entered on Dec. 1 against Alex Spirikaitis. Spirikaitis pleaded guilty in 2014 to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud in a case involving Taupa Lithuanian Credit Union.
According to a news release issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio, Spirikaitis embezzled about $4.2 million from Taupa between 2001 and 2013 and used the money to build a home in Solon, obtain a luxury suite at Cleveland Browns games and to purchase vehicles and firearms. He also engaged in a conspiracy with several other people. These actions reportedly led to a loss of about $15 million to the credit union and the National Credit Union Administration. NCUA and the Ohio Department of Commerce took possession of Taupa last year and placed it into receivership because of insolvency. Taupa had about 1,150 members and assets of approximately $24 million.
