FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, March 27, 2008
CASSANDRA SOLBERG ARRAIGNED AND PLEADS GUILTY IN U.S. FEDERAL COURT
Bill Mercer, United States Attorney for the District of Montana, announced today that during a federal court session in Great Falls on March 27, 2008, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Keith Strong, CASSANDRA SOLBERG, a 23-year-old resident of Wolf Point, was arraigned and pled guilty to bank embezzlement. Sentencing is set for July 31, 2008. She is currently released on special conditions.
In an Offer of Proof filed by the United States, the government stated it would have proved at trial the following:
On October 15, 2007, employees of the First Community Bank audited the vault and determined that all the funds balanced. However, the next day they had trouble balancing the amounts and determined that there were several irregularities with bills of mixed denomination out of order. Upon a closer audit, they discovered $13,000 missing from the vault.
When questioned, other bank employees told officers that SOLBERG had acted strangely in the vault. The First Community Bank was supposed to have a "dual control" procedure with two employees in the vault at all times, but had been short-handed for a while. SOLBERG always volunteered to do the vault audit and would wear baggy clothing. After completing a vault audit, SOLBERG frequently went to the personal room where employees kept their coats and purses. She was also known to pay off negative personal account balances with cash payments.
When interviewed, SOLBERG confessed to embezzling money from the bank. She admitted that she took money from the vault 3-4 days prior to the audit when she was going on vacation. In addition to the $13,000 from the vault, she confessed to force balancing her teller drawer and taking about $10,000 since January 2006. A subsequent audit showed her drawer to be $10,500 short. SOLBERG explained that she knew it was wrong, but could not resist the temptation once she started.
SOLBERG faces possible penalties of 30 years in prison, a $1,000,000 fine and 5 years supervised release.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan M. Archer prosecuted the case for the United States.
The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
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A copy of the Offer of Proof can be obtained by contacting Sally Frank at (406) 247-4638.
