A US regulator says a former bank employee stole tens of thousands of dollars from two elderly customers and then blamed them for it.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) say Hailee T. Ray illegally withdrew money from elderly customers’ accounts while working as a teller at Herring Bank in Amarillo, Texas.
“Between November 15, 2021 and December 30, 2021, Defendant conducted nine separate cash withdrawal transactions from an account of two elderly customers.”
The transactions totaled $39,950.
When the elderly customers noticed unauthorized transactions in their accounts on January 12, 2022, they contacted the bank. The bank investigated the matter and discovered that Ray was behind the missing money.
When asked about the transactions, Ray said the older customers had made the withdrawals themselves through the bank’s drive-thru service. However, when the bank reviewed the security footage, it appeared that no cars were in the driveway at the time of the transactions.
On January 21, 2022, the bank repaid the stolen money. Ray was fired from the bank on January 25, 2022, and in March 2022, the ex-bank teller was criminally charged for the theft.
In August 2023, Ray pleaded guilty to the second-degree misdemeanor count of theft more than $30,000, less than $150,000, and the third-degree misdemeanor count of elder exploitation.
The FDIC issued an order banning Ray from ever working at a bank again and imposed a $35,000 civil penalty for the crime.
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