In fraud at bank, sentences reduced for 2 ex-workers

The sentences of two women who admitted helping defraud First National Bank of Lawrence County in Walnut Ridge of $3.9 million were officially reduced Friday by six months each.

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Amended judgment and commitment orders were filed for Brenda Montgomery, 57, a former teller, and Cindy Tate, also 57, a former head cashier at the family-operated bank, causing both women's sentences to be reduced from 57 months to 51 months in federal prison.

The adjustments were approved by U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker at the request of Assistant U.S. Attorney Angela Jegley, who conceded late last month that a co-defendant's attorney had caught a glitch between the penalty range contemplated in earlier plea negotiations and the penalty range calculated by probation officers during preparation of pre-sentence reports.

Tim Dudley, an attorney for co-defendant Peggy Sutton, 61, a former head teller, was able to immediately secure a 51-month sentence for Sutton, as a result of catching the glitch, but by that time, Montgomery and Tate had already been sentenced to 57 months in prison apiece.

During plea negotiations in May, the parties had overlooked an unanticipated one-level adjustment or enhancement that the probation office ended up applying, Jegley said in a motion. She asked the judge to accordingly reduce the penalty range by six months for Montgomery and Tate, in keeping with the intention that the plea agreements would apply equally to all three defendants.

Montgomery, Tate and Sutton admitted in May that they had used their positions as bank officers to steal more than $3.9 million in cash from the bank vault over 10 years. In addition to the prison time, the plea agreements, approved by Baker, require each woman to repay a third of the total, or $1.32 million.

Jegley said last month that without the plea agreements, each woman would have faced 11 to 14 years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines, instead of the prison terms of four years and three months.

She said the women had managed to cover their actions during audits over the years because Tate had advance notice of audits. Routinely, before the auditors arrived, the three women carried in cash from other branches of the bank to cover shortages in the vault. The women would then return the borrowed cash when the audit was complete, Jegley said.

An information technology employee at the bank became suspicious of Tate's refusal to let anyone else access the records of the three bank officers and began secretly monitoring their emails. In reviewing the emails, the employee became convinced that a crime was being committed and alerted the bank president, who arranged for a surprise audit that led to the discovery of the theft.

Metro on 10/09/2016

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