Courtney Marie Batey Sentenced in U.S. District Court

The United States Attorney's Office announced that during a federal court session in Billings, on December 2, 2010, before Chief U.S. District Judge Richard F. Cebull, COURTNEY MARIE BATEY, a 31-year-old resident of Forsyth, was sentenced to a term of:

Prison: 12 months and one day
Special Assessment: $100
Restitution: $84,040
Supervised Release: three years

BATEY was sentenced in connection with her guilty plea to bank embezzlement.

In an Offer of Proof filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan M. Archer, the government stated it would have proved at trial the following:

From August 26, 2003, through July 3, 2009, BATEY worked for the Wells Fargo Bank in Forsyth. In 2009 she was a teller/service manager. She supervised approximately four employees, handled teller functions, and assisted with audit controls at the bank.

On June 24, 2009, a bank customer complained that she was shorted $5,000 when she redeemed two CDs. The $5,000 was taken out in a cash withdrawal from the proceeds of the CD. When the customer reported the missing funds, BATEY's activity with the account was scrutinized. BATEY's personal accounts showed $10,000 in cash deposits that were not consistent with her earnings and financial means. Additional investigation revealed that another bank customer BATEY worked with was missing thousands of dollars from her accounts—much of which consisted of cash-back withdrawals when CDs were redeemed.

When Wells Fargo questioned BATEY about the missing funds, she confessed to stealing the $5,000, and further confessed to stealing money from the other bank customer for the last year and a half. BATEY was later interviewed by the FBI and she stated that from October 2007 through June 2009 she stole cash out of her teller drawer. She would then replace the money in her teller drawer with funds she took from customer accounts. Additional records demonstrate that BATEY embezzled approximately $84,000 from Wells Fargo Bank.

Because there is no parole in the federal system, the "truth in sentencing" guidelines mandate that BATEY will likely serve all of the time imposed by the court. In the federal system, BATEY does have the opportunity to earn a sentence reduction for "good behavior." However, this reduction will not exceed 15 percent of the overall sentence.

The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.