FAYETTEVILLE -- A former loan officer was sentenced Wednesday to federal prison and ordered to make restitution for stealing money from Arvest Bank.
Erica Keller waived indictment and pleaded guilty in December to theft, embezzlement and misapplication by a bank employee. Keller agreed to forfeit $321,269 or the equivalent in property.
Keller worked for Arvest for 15 years, according to court records. She was working as a loan officer at the Elkins branch when she resigned in 2013.
Keller was sentenced Wednesday to three years and one month in federal prison to be followed by five years of supervised release. No fine was imposed, but Keller was ordered to pay $354,054 restitution with no interest imposed.
Keller is prohibited from incurring any new debt or establishing bank accounts or credit card accounts without permission from the federal probation office until after the restitution is paid.
Keller was allowed to remain free on her $5,000 bond and to self-report to prison no later than July 10.
Arvest officials began looking into loans Keller handled after a customer complained about money being taken out of his account and applied to a loan he thought was closed, according to court documents. The investigation revealed Keller took cash withdrawals from customer accounts on multiple occasions for personal use, falsified disbursement tickets, originated false loans and misapplied customer loan payments to conceal the fictitious loans.
Multiple fraudulent transactions were captured on Arvest's surveillance system, and Keller's initials were clearly written on most of the tickets for fraudulent transactions, according to the documents.
When confronted in late 2013, Keller couldn't explain what happened and resigned shortly after, according to documents. The victims interviewed said Keller personally managed their accounts and processed their transactions, according to the documents.
Keller faced up to 30 years in prison and fines of up to $1 million, or both.
NW News on 06/07/2018
