Brenda Montgomery, Bank Embezzlement, Arkansas 2024

Bank heist

LITTLE ROCK—In a shocking turn of events, three former employees of the First National Bank of Lawrence County, Arkansas, have pleaded guilty to stealing nearly $4 million from the bank.

Brenda Montgomery, 57, of Walnut Ridge, Peggy Sutton, 61, of Biggers, and Cindy Tate, 57, of Walnut Ridge, admitted to conspiring with each other from 2005 through April 2015 to fraudulently obtain approximately $3,953,025 from the bank. According to the facts read at the hearings, the trio used their positions to conceal the theft of money from the vault of the bank’s main office in Walnut Ridge.

Tate had advance notice of internal audits and would arrange with Montgomery or Sutton to have cash transferred temporarily to the main vault from other branches of the bank, or from other corresponding banks, so that it would appear to the auditors that the count of cash on hand in the main vault was correct.

Once the auditors had completed the count, Tate, Sutton, or Montgomery saw to it that cash which had been temporarily moved to the vault was then returned to the other branches or to the corresponding bank. In April 2015, bank officials became suspicious of the defendants’ conduct and arranged for a surprise cash count of the vault contents, at which time a shortage became apparent.

A forensic audit confirmed that the three defendants had stolen bank funds by materially over representing the amount of cash on hand in the bank by $3,953,025. Each defendant has been ordered to pay $1,317,000 in restitution to the bank.

The statutory penalties for conspiracy to commit bank fraud include imprisonment of not more than 30 years, a $1,000,000 fine, five years supervised release, and a $100 special assessment. The defendants have been allowed to remain free on bond pending sentencing before United States District Judge Kristine G. Baker.

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