Bank Employee Sentenced to Over Two Years in Fraud Scheme

Greenbelt, Maryland - U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte sentenced Shantesse Yvette White, age 26, of Laurel, Maryland today to 30 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release for bank fraud, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein. Judge Messitte also ordered White to pay restitution of $276,424 in restitution.

According to her guilty plea, from March 2003 through July 2006, White was employed by Chevy Chase Bank (CCB) as a teller, charge back coordinator, and check processor and had the authority to refund Non-Sufficient Funds (NSF) fees in customer accounts and to reset customer account balances in response to payments by customers. White also had access to the general ledger for all branches of CCB.

From August 5, 2004, through July 10, 2006, White credited a CCB account, which had been opened by her brother, with more than $276,000 in NSF fee “refunds,” in increments of $32, even though no NSF fees had been charged to the account. White also altered cashier’s checks totaling more than $7,600, sent to CCB by various bank customers to charge off accounts with negative balances so that the cashier’s checks were deposited into her brother’s account rather than into the accounts of the customers who sent in the cashier’s checks. White also credited the accounts of the customers who sent in the cashier’s checks that she had altered to hide the fact that the checks were deposited into her brother’s account rather than into the accounts of the customers who sent in the cashier’s checks.

During this same time period, White used a check card and ATM withdrawals to obtain more than $275,000 from her brother’s account and generated checks, using her access to the CCB computer system, to obtain more than $6,300 from the account.

The actual loss to CCB as a result of White’s scheme to defraud the bank is $276,424, since the bank was able to recover some of the funds when the scheme was discovered.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein thanked the Federal Bureau of Investigation for their investigative work, and commended Assistant United States Attorney Steven M. Dunne, who prosecuted the case.