Pilot Mountain Woman Sentenced for Bank Embezzlement

GREENSBORO, N.C. – A Pilot Mountain woman was sentenced today to 21 months of imprisonment and three years of supervised release for bank embezzlement, announced Dan Bishop, United States Attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina (MDNC).  

Sarah Wilson, aka Sarah Cannoy, age 28, pleaded guilty on August 4, 2025, to three counts of embezzlement by a bank employee. In addition to prison time and supervised release, Judge William L. Osteen, Jr. also ordered Wilson to pay restitution totaling $150,450.

According to court documents, Wilson was a teller at the Pilot Mountain branch of First Citizens Bank when, from December 2023 through May 2024, she stole $150,450 in cash from her teller drawer.  To hide her theft, she entered numerous fraudulent transactions into the Bank’s computer system – fraudulent buy/sell transactions associated with the bank’s vault and fraudulent withdrawal transactions from the accounts of two elderly customers, then 89-years old and 90-years old,  with whom Wilson was familiar.  When the 89-year-old customer asked Wilson about the suspicious account activity, she told him the account looked fine.  By then, Wilson’s fraudulent entries had effectively depleted his savings and certificate of deposit accounts by $59,700.  She moved on to the 90-year-old customer’s certificate of deposit account, effectively depleting it by $42,650.  An audit in late May 2024 revealed an imbalance with Wilson’s teller drawer.  The bank launched an investigation and discovered the extent of Wilson’s criminal conduct.  The bank terminated Wilson and made the customers whole.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation – Office of Inspector General investigated the case, and it was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Laura Jeanne Dildine.

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