North Attleboro Bank Employee Sentenced for Bank Fraud

BOSTON—A North Attleboro woman was sentenced yesterday in federal court for taking over $112,000 from the bank where she was employed.

Debra S. Antonitis, 45, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge William G. Young to time served, to be followed by two years of supervised release, of which six months will be served in home detention. Antonitis was also order to pay restitution of $92,128.95 and a $100 special assessment. The court also entered a forfeiture order of $112,385. Antonitis pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud on January 14, 2013.

Between April 2006 and early January 2012, Antonitis made 143 fraudulent transfers of funds through the records system of the bank where she worked in order to take approximately $112,385. Antonitis conducted each of these fraudulent transfers by creating fictitious withdrawals from customers’ accounts and transferring the funds to herself in cash or in deposits to her own accounts. She covered up her thefts by creating false entries in the bank’s records to make it appear that customers had withdrawn the funds.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz and Richard Deslauriers, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation-Boston Field Division made the announcement. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Miron Bloom of Ortiz’s Economic Crimes Unit.