HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – A Cullman woman has been sentenced for her involvement in an embezzlement scheme, announced U.S. Attorney Prim F. Escalona.
U.S. District Court Judge Liles C. Burke sentenced Kellie L. Johnson, 54, of Cullman, Alabama, to 60 months in prison followed by 60 months supervised release. In May, Johnson pleaded guilty to bank embezzlement.
According to the plea agreement, Johnson was employed with First Community Bank for approximately 25 years. Between July 2013 and June 2023, Johnson embezzled money from First Community Bank’s Federal Reserve account to pay personal expenses, primarily credit card bills. To conceal her scheme, Johnson falsified transactions to reconcile the balance of the Federal Reserve account in the bank’s general ledger and deleted her ACH transactions. Johnson also altered account statements sent by the Federal Reserve that she was required to provide to the bank president, auditors, and others. The scheme ended when the bank president received a call from the Federal Reserve notifying him that the bank’s ACH account was overdrawn. When the bank president asked Johnson to provide the latest account statement, she provided a fraudulent statement showing a positive balance in the account. Over the decade that she stole money from the bank, Johnson conducted approximately 273 fraudulent ACH transactions totaling over $2.3 million. Additionally, Johnson deprived the bank of $138,185.40 in interest income to the Federal Reserve account.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura D. Hodge prosecuted the case.
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