A former bank employee will spend the next six years in prison after siphoning hundreds of thousands of dollars from customer accounts.
Former National Bank of Commerce employee and Pocahontas, Arkansas resident Heather Pankey pleaded guilty to larceny, money laundering, wire fraud and wire fraud after she stole $257,594.77 from a customer account, reports ABC KAIT8 News contributor.
Investigators say Pankey used his position as an inside banker to access customer accounts and transfer money to a joint account he shared with his grandmother. In order to complicate the situation, Pankey transfers money from one customer account to another. According to investigators, Pankey withdrew money from at least eight customers’ accounts without authorization.
Authorities say Pankey’s scheme was first exposed on March 20 after he used an associate’s credentials to transfer money to a customer’s account. The transaction did not go through, which alerted the bank to the dubious transaction.
Says Sgt. Trason Johnson of the Pocahontas Police Department,
“The first red flag appeared when a transaction was initiated on the account of the deceased customer and failed to deliver.”
In his statement, Pankey said he only “borrowed money” from customers he knew would not need it at the time.
On top of the 72 months in prison, District Court Judge Rob Ratton gave Pankey an additional 168 months of suspended sentence (SIS) and ordered him to destroy the First National Bank of Commerce.
Pankey has already released $125,000 in restitution to the bank and is due to pay the remaining $132,594.77 at the end of his SIS.
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