Vienna Man Sentenced in Fraud Case

A. Courtney Cox, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, announced today that on October 19, 2009, SCOTT ANTHONY DUANE HARRIS, age, 30 of Vienna, Illinois, was sentenced in United States District Court at Benton to one year and one day imprisonment on one count indictment charging him with Theft, Embezzlement, and Misapplication of Money by a Bank Employee.

According to a signed stipulation of facts, HARRIS admitted that he was employed by Regions Bank, between January of 2006 and April 8, 2008. He worked at the bank's Carbondale, Illinois, branch first and then moved to its Goreville, Illinois, branch in May of 2006, where he served as a branch manager. While at the Goreville branch he misapplied and embezzled $63,039.56 in funds intrusted to the care of the bank between October 2007, and April 8, 2008, when he was discharged from employment.

HARRIS admitted that in October 2007, he created a false loan in the name of a bank customer who was related to his former wife. He then took the proceeds of the loan, $40,000, and placed it into an account which he had set up for his own access. He secured the loan, without authorization or the knowledge of anyone, by using funds from a certificate of deposit account which also belonged to the same relative.

In or about January of 2008, Harris paid off the loan by transferring money, without authorization or consent, from another bank customer's certificate of deposit accounts. He then repeatedly, from January to April of 2008, converted money from other certificate of deposit accounts. HARRIS told agents from the FBI that he did this to pay off bills and other obligations he had.

In addition to his one year and one day prison sentence, HARRIS was ordered to pay $53,039 in restitution (having already paid back $10,000 when he was first caught), and a $100 special assessment. Following imprisonment he has been ordered to serve five years supervised release during which time he will be required to make $1,100 monthly payments on his restitution sentence.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Michael C. Carr.