A woman who worked at First Security Bank in Searcy admitted Monday to a federal judge she pilfered $385,392 from the financial institution between late 2006 and early 2014.
According to a felony information to which Nadine Freeland pleaded guilty, her duties at the bank included setting up new credit card accounts. She admitted creating several fake credit card accounts and transferring balances from her personal accounts to the fake accounts. She created fake names for the fake accounts, and kept the accounts active and current by creating debits and credits, the information said.
Over time, Freeland transferred funds from the bank's general ledger accounts to her personal account, and then balanced the general ledger accounts by transferring funds into it from fee accounts, including a fraud loss account, according to the information.
In court Monday, with defense attorney Kathryn Hudson, Freeland specifically admitted to carrying out the scheme on Jan. 13, 2014, by transferring both credits and debits to and from four fraudulent credit card accounts she created.
A plea agreement requires Freeland to repay the full amount to the Searcy bank. She will be sentenced at a later date after a pre-sentence report is prepared by the U.S. Probation Office.
NW News on 04/14/2015