Former Manager to Two Mansfield Banks Charged in $2 Million Scheme

A criminal information was filed against the former manager of Huntington National Bank and Key Bank in Mansfield, Ohio, related to the embezzlement and theft of more than $2 million, said Steven M. Dettelbach, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.

Charged are Kevin J. Moore, age 35, and Randy L. Meister, age 60, both of Mansfield, Ohio.

The information charged that from August 2008 to November 2010, Moore, while he was the manager of Huntington National Bank (HNB), in Mansfield, embezzled approximately $1.7 Million from HNB. Moore was also charged with tax evasion in failing to report and pay taxes on the monies he had embezzled and used for his own personal benefit.

In addition, Moore was charged with wire fraud for defrauding an individual of more than $360,000 in an phony investment scheme. Moore was also charged with bank fraud for opening lines of credit in Meister’s name, initially without Meister’s knowledge, and fraudulently drawing on those lines while Moore was the manager of the Mansfield, Ohio branch of KeyBank from the fall of 2007 to the spring of 2008.

According to the information, Moore, as branch manager of HNB, customer certificates of deposit (CDs) and investments in annuities.

The information alleged that Moore met with bank customers who wanted to open or renew a CD or annuity account and would embezzle their money and then provide these customers with a printout that he had manufactured that falsely reflected the amount of the invested funds and earnings rate, when, in fact, the defendant had stolen these funds and there was no investment.

When CDs would come up for renewal, Moore would contact the CD customers and entice those customers to renew their CDs by offering them an inflated interest rate even though defendant had no authority from the bank to offer such rates, and, in fact, no interest rates were to be paid on these CD investments since the defendant had stolen these funds. When a customer wanted to cash out his or her CD where defendant had stolen the funds, Moore would “flip” money from another CD customer’s account to be able to cash out that account, according to the information.

The information charged that Moore would withdraw all of the CD and annuity funds he had stolen in the form of cash by falsely telling bank tellers the customers were waiting in his office to pick up these funds. In fact, according to the information, this was only a ruse perpetrated by Moore to allow him to steal, and use for his own personal benefit, the cash he had received from the tellers, according to the information.

The information charged that, from on or about August 2008 to on or about November 2010, Moore stole approximately $1.7 million from HNB and its CD and annuity customers. In connection with this embezzlement scheme, the information also charged Moore with three counts of tax violations for evading his taxes for calendar years 2008, 2009, and 2010.

The information charged that Moore committed wire fraud by defrauding an investor from 2004 through 2008 of more than $360,000.

The information charged that Moore approached R.R., who was a member of the church where defendant’s father was the pastor and where defendant was an assistant pastor, and informed R.R. that he and his family was actively involved in making investments, including “day trading” (buying and selling securities within a short period of time, usually within a day, in order to secure a quick profit by any increase in trading price during that short period of time; to secure any kind of significant profit, it usually requires multitudes of day trades with securities experiencing “up ticks” in their daily trading prices).

Moore represented to R.R. that R.R. could invest $250,000 in a four-year trading program and receive a return of $5,000 per month for 48 months, at which time R.R. would receive the return of his original $250,000 investment.

The information alleged that, on or about August 13, 2004, R.R. cashed out his 401(k) pension fund and gave Moore a check for $250,000 to invest in the above-mentioned four-year trading program.

According to the information, on or about November 24, 2004, Moore, upon finding out R.R. owned stock, approached R.R. and convinced him to sell his stock and invest an additional $118,000, again promising a substantial return on this investment. In fact, as charged in the information, there was no investment and defendant used these funds for his own personal use and benefit. When R.R. requested payment from Moore, according to the information, Moore would attempt to lull R.R. into a false sense of security in order to prevent R.R. from complaining to law enforcement officials by paying him small amounts of money over a period of time and by telling R.R. false stories, including false statements that Moore was associated with individuals who were being murdered by organized crime criminals; that Moore and his family were in danger; and that Moore was already working with law enforcement in this organized crime case.

In a separate bank fraud charge, the information alleged that, while Moore was the manager of KeyBank in Mansfield, Ohio, Moore had made fraudulent deposits into credit lines established at KeyBank in Meister’s name. The information charged that, initially, Meister was unaware that Moore had opened these lines of credit under his name. Meister later assisted Moore in cashing out advances on the lines of credit prior to Key Bank’s discovery of allegedly false deposits. Meister was charged with misprison of a felony for allowing his name and real property to be used to establish the relevant bank accounts, assisting Moore in obtaining cash from fraudulent withdrawals from Meister’s lines of credit, and concealing Moore’s bank fraud from the proper authorities.

If convicted, the Moore’s and Meister’s sentences will be determined by the court after review of factors unique to this case, including the defendants’ prior criminal records, if any; the defendants’ roles in the offense; and the characteristics of the violations. In all cases, the sentences will not exceed the statutory maximum and in most cases it will be less than the maximum.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert J. Patton and Assistant U.S. Attorney Christian H. Stickan after an investigation by the Mansfield Resident Agency of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division, in Cleveland, Ohio.

An information is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. Both defendants are entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.