Former SunTrust Bank Employee Sentenced To More Than Six Years In Federal Prison For Embezzling Almost $600,000

Ocala, Florida – United States District Judge Roy B. Dalton, Jr. today sentenced Connie Moorman Willis (52, Morriston) to six years and three months in federal prison for mail fraud, aggravated identity theft, embezzlement by a bank employee, and access device (credit card) fraud. She pleaded guilty on July 14, 2017.

According to the plea agreement, Willis worked at SunTrust Bank as a business banker with wide-ranging authority over customer accounts. 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 home 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 used the stolen funds to pay for her personal 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 then used stolen funds to pay off the mortgage and to make payments on the fraudulent credit cards. 

Once Willis’s fraud was discovered, she texted one of her customers and admitted that she had “made a big mistake.” 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 was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Robert E. Bodnar, Jr.