Two convicted in Bank of the West embezzlement case

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Two former employees of the San Manuel branch of the Bank of the West will be serving time in a Federal Prison for a crime discovered in 2009.

Edna Barcelo Boger and Rachel Leigh White were indicted by the Federal Grand Jury on Dec. 1, 2010 for Conspiracy to Embezzle by Bank Employees and Embezzlement by Bank Employees. The two reached plea agreements and pleaded guilty to one count each of Conspiracy to Embezzle by Bank Employees.

Boger was sentenced to two years in a federal prison. Upon release from prison, she will be placed on supervised release for three years. She has also been ordered to pay restitution to Bank of the West in the amount of $344,802.50. Boger is currently imprisoned at the Federal Correctional Institution minimum security women’s camp in Phoenix. Her projected release date is March 24, 2014.

White was sentenced to 12 months and one day in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons. White has been ordered to pay restitution to the Bank of the West in the amount of $344,802.50. White entered her plea of guilty on Feb. 27, 2012 and was sentenced on July 9, 2012. She must surrender herself to the U.S. Marshals or the institution designated by the Bureau of Prisons on July 23. She has also been sentenced to three years of supervised probation following her prison term.

Both White and Boger are also responsible to the Internal Revenue Service for unpaid taxes, penalties and interest on their illegally gained income. They are also prohibited from participating in the conduct of affairs of any financial institution insured by the FDIC.

Bank officials at the San Manuel branch of Bank of the West first reported an alleged embezzlement of $687,000 on Monday, Aug. 24, 2009, to the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office. The investigation of the case was then turned over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI would not comment on the investigation at that time and no other information was available on the case. The San Manuel Miner just gained access to the information on Tuesday, July 10. The following information is compiled from the court papers including the plea bargains of both Boger and White. It includes facts that both defendants agreed accurately describe their conduct in connection with the crime to which they plead guilty:

The embezzlement scheme was first discovered on July 29, 2009 during a records audit conducted by Bank of the West. The audit concluded that the San Manuel branch was carrying too much cash in its vault for customer needs and it exceeded the established vault limit. The San Manuel branch was ordered by the bank’s corporate office to ship over a half a million dollars from their vault to the Federal Reserve. White and Boger, because they were responsible for the vault, were assigned the task of retrieving the cash and preparing it for shipment. Because White and Boger had stolen the cash, they could not produce the $500,000 for shipment. They attempted to stall the shipment for several weeks and tried to conceal the theft by falsifying two fraudulent cash out tickets. They told corporate that the cash was ready to ship and they had made arrangements for the shipment. During all of this, they concealed their actions from their co-workers in San Manuel. On Aug. 24, 2009, an audit team from Bank of the West audited the cash in the San Manuel branch vault and all teller drawers. They discovered that $689,605.97 in cash was missing.

The San Manuel branch of Bank of the West had a total of five employees: a Branch Manager, a Customer Service Manager, one Assistant Customer Service Manager (Boger), Customer Service Representative (White) and one Financial Consultant. White and Boger had all the responsibilities of the bank vault including daily cash outs and Federal Reserve cash shipments. During the surprise audit on Aug. 24, 2009, the vault was short $666,605; White’s teller drawer was short $22,787.89; and Boger’s teller drawer was short $213.08. On Aug. 31, 2009 Boger’s and White’s employment was terminated. The other three employees were also terminated.

Boger and White admitted to FBI Agents they had been taking the money from their teller drawers for the past seven years. They also said that the other three employees at the San Manuel branch were not involved and knew nothing about the thefts.

White stated that she and Boger concealed the thefts by falsely balancing their drawers and the vault. They were able to manipulate the branch’s automated teller system to show that money was in the vault. Their scheme went undetected because they were the only ones responsible for the vault. White and Boger were able to manipulate the figures for the cash ins and cash outs from their teller drawers and the branch vault to make sure that the vault amount would balance each night. They were also good at deceiving and manipulating other staff. When a third party such as the Financial Services Consultant (FSC) had to count the money in the vault for monthly certifications, Boger and White would go into the vault and make sure it was balanced. They would then conduct the count with the FSC and document the actual count on a cash audit report form and have the FSC sign it. White would then increase the vault balance in the automated teller system to cover the amount that was stolen. White and Boger then would tell the FSC that they had lost the signed cash audit report. They then convinced the FSC to sign a blank cash audit report believing they would insert the correct figures. They would fill in the report with bogus numbers to hide the stolen money.

During monthly surprise cash audits, both ladies would move money between their cash drawers in order to conceal thefts. Boger arranged to be solely responsible for conducting Rachel White’s surprise audits. Both of them had keys to each other’s teller cubicle in the vault and would use it to move money between each others teller drawers in case of a surprise audit when one of them was not at work. This was another way they were able to cover up the stolen money.

At her sentencing hearing on April 30, 2012, Boger was asked if she wanted to speak.

“Yes, with great regret and remorse. I am ashamed to even be here, and it has been really hard for me,” she told the judge.

Edna went on to talk about her job working with kids in San Manuel. How she helped troubled kids and volunteered in the community and how she wanted to continue doing this. She spoke about her parents who are elderly and her faith helping her get through this. She ended her statement by saying, “I’m sorry. Thank you for your consideration, your honor.”

Boger had been working for Adelante Juntos in San Manuel after losing her job at the bank. She helped mentor kids, worked in the office and at community events.

United States District Judge David C. Bury, before pronouncing his sentence said, “If this offense was committed out of desperation and there was a hand in the till a couple of times, say, to pay medical bills, something like that, that’s one case. This crime was committed over a course of at least five years, if not more, by a person who was in a position of trust, who treated the bank’s money as her own, and who did so out of greed, as far as I can determine, to supplement one’s income: not to provide for some emergent situation, but rather a person who voluntarily got themselves in debt and then supplements income by stealing from a bank, maybe to pay this humongous payment for a truck.

“That’s a crime that has to be punished; that’s a crime that involves a sentence that should be published to others that if they do this from a position of trust, and they do this based on greed and avarice; that there is going to be a serious consequence to follow,” he said.

Judge Bury also sentenced Rachel Leigh White on July 9, 2012. No transcript of the sentencing hearing was available at the time.

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