Hancock Bank Auditor Pleads Guilty to Federal Bank Fraud

GULFPORT, MS—Lisa Brooks, 45, of Gulfport, pled guilty in U.S. District Court today to federal bank fraud, U.S. Attorney John Dowdy and FBI Special Agent in Charge Daniel McMullen announced. Brooks will be sentenced by Chief U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola, Jr., on January 4, 2012, at 1:30 p.m., and faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a $1,000,000 fine.

From October 2006 to October 2008, Brooks was employed by Hancock Bank as an auditor in the Recoveries Department in Long Beach, Mississippi. During that time, she received checks at Hancock Bank for collection matters, which were made payable to Hancock Bank, and she would deposit them into a general ledger account and prepare money orders to post to the individual charged-off accounts. Brooks would then fraudulently convert a portion from the amount of the checks to money order for the use or benefit of herself and others. In some instances, Brooks concealed her theft by forging someone else’s signature on some of the money orders when depositing the funds into an account she held at another bank. The amount taken was approximately $143,976.91. Brooks was interviewed by investigative agents and confessed to fraudulently stealing money from Hancock Bank in this manner.

U.S. Attorney Dowdy praised the efforts of the special agents from the FBI Office in Gulfport, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst who is prosecuting the case.