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Press Release

Indictment: Former Bank Employees Embezzled, Staged Robbery

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Kansas

WICHITA, KAN. – Four former bank employees are charged with embezzling from a bank in Grant County, Kan., and staging a robbery to cover the thefts, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said today.

Four former employees of Western State Bank in Ulysses, Kan., are charged in a federal grand jury indictment unsealed today. The defendants are:

Amber Gutierrez, 32, Ulysses, Kan., who is charged with two counts of embezzlement by a bank employee and one count of bank robbery.
Hattie Wiginton, 32, Ulysses, Kan., who is charged with two counts of embezzlement by a bank employee, one count of bank robbery, and one count of making a false statement to the FBI.
Ashley Cravens, 28, Ulysses, Kan., who is charged with two counts of embezzlement by a bank employee and one count of bank robbery.
Linda Wise, 59, Ulysses, Kan., who is charged with one count of embezzlement by a bank employee.

The indictment alleges:
From 2008 to July 24, 2010, while Gutierrez was head teller and Wiginton and Cravens were clerks, they embezzled up to $84,200 from the bank.
On July 24, 2010, Gutierrez, Wiginton and Cravens staged a robbery at the bank, taking an undetermined amount of cash.
On July 24, 2010, Wiginton made false statements to the FBI, including false claims that she did not know who robbed the bank, that there were two robbers and that one of the robbers was a male with an Hispanic accent.
From late 2010 to March 2013, Gutierrez, Cravens and Wise, who were still bank employees, embezzled $24,450 from the bank. They created falsified cash deposit slips and deposited funds in their personal accounts.

If convicted, they face a maximum penalty of 30 years in federal prison and a fine up to $1,000 on the each count of theft by a bank employee; a maximum penalty of 25 years and a fine up to $250,000 on the charge of bank robbery; and a maximum penalty of five years and a fine up to $250,000 on the charge of making a false statement to the FBI. The FBI, the KBI, the Grant County Sheriff’s Office and the Ulysses Police Department investigated. Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron Smith is prosecuting.

In all cases, defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty. The indictments merely contain allegations of criminal conduct.

Updated December 15, 2014

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