Pittsburgh Woman Sentenced to 71 Months in Prison for Defrauding Dwelling House Savings and Loan

PITTSBURGH, PA—A resident of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania has been sentenced in federal court to 71 months in prison and five years’ supervised release on her conviction of bank fraud and money laundering, United States Attorney David J. Hickton announced today.

Senior United States District Judge Alan N. Bloch imposed the sentence on Veronica Smith, 55.

According to information presented to the court, Smith executed a scheme to defraud Dwelling House Savings and Loan (DHSL) of its assets using fraudulent ACH transactions. Smith opened a PayPal account and associated her DHSL bank account to the PayPal account. Using PayPal to initiate ACH transactions, she caused disbursements to be made from DHSL in amounts that far exceeded any balance she had in her accounts at DHSL. Those insufficient funds transactions were not rejected and reversed by DHSL personnel. Smith also used various bank and credit card accounts of others for the same purpose. The loss attributed to Smith is $213, 286.53.

Afterimposing sentence, Judge Bloch said Smith spent her lifetime “stealing” and described her criminal conduct as “endless.” He said her criminal record is one of the worst he has everseen.

Assistant United States Attorney Paul E. Hull prosecuted this case on behalf of the government.

U.S. Attorney Hickton commended the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service and the City of Pittsburgh Police Department for the investigation leading to the successful prosecution of Smith.