FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, November 09, 2007
BRIDGET SUE LOUDON SENTENCED IN U.S. DISTRICT COURT
Bill Mercer, United States Attorney for the District of Montana, announced today that during a federal court session in Billings, on November 9, 2007, before U.S. District Judge Richard F. Cebull, BRIDGET SUE LOUDON, a resident of Circle, appeared for sentencing. LOUDON was sentenced to a term of:
- Prison: 1 day
- Special Assessment: $100
- Supervised Release: 3 years
LOUDON was sentenced in connection with her guilty plea to embezzlement by a credit union employee.
In an Offer of Proof filed by the United States, the government stated it would have proved at trial the following:
In September 2004, LOUDON was a loan officer and back-up teller at the McCone County Federal Credit Union, a federally insured credit union in Circle.
From approximately September of 2004 until July 26, 2006, LOUDON embezzled credit union funds by diverting monies into her personal account and then concealing the diversions through fraudulent computer entries.
On July 11, 2005, McCone County Federal Credit Union's internal auditor conducted an audit of the teller drawers at the credit union. To cover the fact that her drawer would show a deficit of $4,300, LOUDON made two computer transactions debiting McCone County Federal Credit Union student loan accounts and crediting the General Ledger. These two computer transactions were sufficient to conceal the shortage in her teller drawer. Immediately after the audit, LOUDON reversed the transactions. LOUDON was able to effect these transactions out of and into the student loan accounts because she was the credit union officer responsible for all but a small percentage of all student loans issued by the McCone County Federal Credit Union.
The following year, on July 19, 2006, while LOUDON was on vacation, the McCone County Federal Credit Union Head Teller decided to conduct a cash count of LOUDON'S cash drawer. The Head Teller had grown suspicious of LOUDON because LOUDON had made a series of unauthorized overriding account entries. The count revealed that there was a $12,300 difference between the computer balance and the actual cash on hand.
McCone County Federal Credit Union officials advised LOUDON on the morning of July 26, 2006, the day she returned from her vacation, that they were going to conduct a cash drawer audit of her drawer that afternoon. That afternoon, LOUDON began reducing the balance in her drawer by making a series of withdrawals from her own accounts and crediting the credit union's vault and cash accounts. Ultimately, LOUDON was able to nearly balance her teller account by taking money from her mother's account, depositing a $9000 Citibank Federal Savings check (of the kind that are often issued with credit card accounts), and withdrawing money from her own savings account.
Later that day, LOUDON was asked what her cash drawer balance was and she pointed to the $12,717.19 figure on the printed cash box sheet. She was then confronted with photographs taken of her teller drawer on July 19 reflecting its contents to be only a little more than $350. LOUDON then confessed to embezzling the funds, explained how she had covered the $4,300 shortage a year earlier, and explained how she had balanced her till that day when she found out about the audit.
Because there is no parole in the federal system, the "truth in sentencing" guidelines mandate that LOUDON will likely serve all of the time imposed by the court. In the federal system, LOUDON does have the opportunity to earn a sentence reduction for "good behavior." However, this reduction will not exceed 15% of the overall sentence.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Carl E. Rostad prosecuted the case for the United States.
The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
