Former Copiah Bank Employee Pleads Guilty to Federal Bank Fraud
| U.S. Attorney’s Office April 26, 2010 |
JACKSON, MS—Lindsay Welch, 33, of Harrisville, a former bookkeeper at Copiah Bank in Hazlehurst, pled guilty on Friday, April 23, to one count of bank fraud, U.S. Attorney Donald R. Burkhalter announced. Welch admitted utilizing her position as bookkeeper from April 2008 through November 2009 to manipulate the bank’s computer system in order to increase her home equity line of credit from $15,000.00 to $350,000.00 without obtaining permission or consent. She then proceeded to withdraw in excess of $250,000.00 from that line of credit into her personal accounts, and used that money to purchase, among other things, four different automobiles for herself and her family.
Welch will be sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Daniel P. Jordan, III on July 29, 2010 at 9:00 a.m., and faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a $1,000,000 fine.
U.S. Attorney Burkhalter praised the efforts of special agents from the FBI, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst, who is prosecuting the case.