Houston Woman Gets Federal Prison For Embezzling From Bank

HOUSTON – Hannah Gonzales, 24, of Houston, has been ordered to prison for two years and ordered to pay $55,000 in restitution for embezzling customer funds from the International Bank of Commerce (IBC), announced United States Attorney Kenneth Magidson. She pleaded guilty to the charges June 6, 2013.

Gonzales, an assistant branch manager at IBC, began withdrawing money from customers' CD accounts without their authorization beginning in 2010. By the time she was fired in July 2011, she had withdrawn almost $100,000. 

According to records, Gonzales chose customers who were either elderly or out of the country in order to reduce the chance that she would get caught.

Gonzales also took money from her teller boxes without authorization. IBC records demonstrated that she was able to do this by conducting transactions in which there was no customer and by simply taking customer's cash deposits and not placing the cash into her teller box. On the day she was fired, IBC's audits revealed she was short approximately an additional $24,000.

U.S. District Court Judge Vanessa D. Gilmore, who presided over the case, has permitted her to remain on bond and voluntarily surrender to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.

The investigation was conducted by the U.S. Secret Service. Assistant United States Attorney Sharad S. Khandelwal prosecuted the case.