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Jennifer Lamanna worked at a bank in Florida and stole $280,000 from the bank vault, trying to cover it up by falsifying transaction records. She also filed a false cash-deposit report saying a customer deposited more than $160,000 when no such deposit was made. Lamanna later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 15 months in prison. Lamanna continued taking money from the vault and deposited $255,362 into a bank account under her control. On June 8, 2023, Lamanna filed a report with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, which is part of the US Treasury Department.
She made several large withdrawals from a customer’s account and followed them with matching deposits, according to the DOJ. She deposited some of the stolen cash into an account she controlled and disguised other transactions as legitimate to hide the missing money. Eventually, the scheme came under federal investigation, and the IRS helped uncover the wrongdoing. The DOJ explained that Lamanna initially used a contingency cash bag to take money out of the vault and remove it from the branch. She continued using this method until the bank discontinued the cash bag programme. However, the change did not stop the theft. The missing cash created a problem that Lamanna needed to conceal in the bank’s records. These transactions were intended to make the vault’s cash balance appear correct, even though money had been stolen. In fact the customer had not made these deposits. The transactions were designed to give the appearance that the missing cash was accounted for, helping Lamanna to hide the shortfall on the bank’s books. The report contained false information, adding another serious offence to the bank theft case.
