Former SunTrust Bank Employee Pleads Guilty To Embezzling Nearly $600,000

Ocala, Florida – Acting United States Attorney W. Stephen Muldrow announces that Connie Moorman Willis (52, Morriston) today pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud, one count of aggravated identity theft, two counts of embezzlement by a bank employee, and one count of access device (credit card) fraud. She faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for the mail fraud count, up to of 30 years’ imprisonment for each embezzlement count, up to 10 years’ imprisonment for the credit card fraud count, and 2 consecutive years in federal prison for the aggravated identity theft count. A sentencing date has not yet been set.

According to the plea agreement, Willis worked at SunTrust Bank as a business banker overseeing valuable business accounts, with wide-ranging authority over them. Beginning in February 2013, she stole the identities of two customers by using their personal information to create a fraudulent bank account. She had all written correspondence for this account mailed to her address in order to keep the customers from learning of her activities. Willis subsequently transferred large amounts of money from other customers, without their permission, into this fraudulent account. She then withdrew the stolen funds or used them to pay her own expenses.

Willis’s victims included customers who were elderly or in poor health. In one instance, investigators learned that Willis had opened two fraudulent credit card accounts and had taken out a $140,000 mortgage in the name of an elderly relative. She used stolen funds to pay off the mortgage and to make payments on the credit cards.

Once Willis’s fraud had been discovered, she texted one customer and admitted that she had “made a big mistake.” She added that she wanted to “make it right” by repaying the customer. In total, Willis stole $591,545.33.

This case was investigated by the United States Postal Inspection Service and the City of Ocala Police Department. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Robert E. Bodnar, Jr.