Mason City Bank Teller Pleads Guilty To Embezzlement

A woman who embezzled nearly $70,000 from a Mason City bank pled guilty today in federal court in Cedar Rapids.

Margaret Marie (Peggy) Sheese, age 53, from Mason City, Iowa, was convicted of one count of embezzlement by a bank employee.

In a plea agreement, Sheese admitted that, between about October 2011 and January 2013, she stole $69,200 from Northwood State Bank in Mason City. At the time, Sheese was a teller at the bank. Sheese admitted making twenty-nine secret withdrawals from accounts belonging to a particular bank customer. Sheese altered the bank’s records to falsely show that the bank customer’s mailing address had changed to a Post Office Box under Sheese’s control. By changing the mailing address, Sheese caused the bank to send the customer’s account statements to Sheese rather than to the customer.

Sheese also admitted that, on January 15, 2013, she stole $2,000 in cash from the bank.

Sentencing before United States District Court Chief Judge Linda R. Reade will be set after a presentence report is prepared. Sheese remains free on bond pending sentencing. Sheese faces a possible maximum sentence of thirty years’ imprisonment, a $1,000,000 fine, and five years of supervised release following any imprisonment.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Peter Deegan and was investigated by the Mason City Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Court file information is available at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. The case file number is 13-3026 LRR.