Mesa bank employee sentenced to 4 years in prison for embezzling more than $500k

A former Mesa bank employee was sentenced to 48 months in prison on three convictions on June 10 for embezzling more than $500,000 from the bank she worked at, authorities said Friday.

Brooke McDonough, 35, embezzled $655,000 while she was a bank manager over the course of seven months from June 2021 to February 2022.

McDonough will have three years of supervised release following her prison sentence.

According to the United States Attorney’s Office, McDonough was a branch manager at the bank, with broad authority over branch operations, employee assignments and cash audits.

She used this authority to steal cash from the ATMs and vault inside the bank and manipulate monthly audits by inflating figures to conceal an increasing cash shortage.

The scheme came to light after McDonough resigned and the theft was discovered, which opened an internal investigation and caused three other employees to go on administrative leave, a news release said.

The investigation discovered McDonough would deposit the stolen cash into her personal bank accounts using different ATMs at multiple bank branches, avoiding Currency Transaction Reports, which are for deposits over $10,000 in cash, by breaking it into smaller amounts.

“Embezzlement is not a victimless crime,” United States Attorney Timothy Courchaine said in the release. “McDonough’s conduct caused real harm to her employer, to the integrity of the financial system and to innocent co-workers whose careers were placed at risk by her actions. The sentence she received reflects the seriousness of that conduct.”

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