Investment Banker Sentenced to 41 Months in Prison and Ordered to Pay Restitution for Embezzling from Elderly Customers
More Than $450,000 Stolen During a Four-Year Period

LOUISVILLE, KY—A former employee of PNC Investments has been sentenced to 41 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release and order to pay $453,819.21 in restitution today, by Chief Judge Thomas B. Russell, in U.S. District Court announced David J. Hale, United States Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky. William T. Hernandez, age 41 of Radcliff, Kentucky pled guilty on June 21, 2011 to two counts of bank fraud for executing a scheme and artifice to defraud PNC Bank and its customers.

According to court records, between October 24, 2006 and June 10, 2010, Hernandez, while employed by PNC Investments, knowingly and with the intent to defraud, caused monies to be transferred from investment accounts maintained with PNC Investments. Hernandez has admitted to depositing the money into a PNC account, then issuing cashier’s checks for his personal benefit and gain. The loss to one customer was more than $250,000.

Between July 1, 2010 and October 20, 2010 Hernandez executed a similar scheme while an employee of PNC Investments, by transferring money from a PNC Investments account, depositing the funds into a PNC Bank account and issuing cashier’s checks for his personal benefit and gain, causing the loss to a second customer of over $60,000.

According to the plea agreement, Hernandez will be responsible for the payment of restitution to PNC Bank that has previous restored the victims’ money.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jim Lesousky, and it was investigated by the FBI.