Former Branch Banking and Trust Employee Pleads Guilty to Making a False Bank Entry

CHARLESTON, WV—A former Branch Banking and Trust Company (BB&T) employee pleaded guilty today in federal court before United States District Judge John T. Copenhaver, Jr. for making a false bank entry. Bonnie J. Bain, 60, of Belle, Kanawha County, West Virginia, was an employee of BB&T and its predecessors from 1977 to November 2007. From 2004 until October 2007, Bain was a teller supervisor at the Westside Branch of BB&T in Charleston, West Virginia. She also held positions of head teller and primary vault teller during her employment with the banking company.

Bain admitted that from at least May 2004 to October 2007, she embezzled at least $200,000 in cash from the Westside Branch of BB&T. In order to conceal the embezzlement scheme and the resultant cash shortage, Bain admitted to making false entries in the company’s books and records to make it appear as if the cash total reconciled when in fact it did not. Bain “floated” the outage among her teller drawer and general ledger accounts using various methods. To further her embezzlement scheme, Bain admitted to recording fictitious cash dollar amount in her teller/vault drawer by force balancing. Bain also admitted that on other occasions, she would reduce the cash shown in her teller/vault drawer by creating fictitious cash out tickets.

Bain faces up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine when she is sentenced on September 8, 2011.

The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Secret Service and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s (FDIC) Office of Inspector General. Assistant United States Attorney Susan Robinson is in charge of the prosecution.