A Cullman resident and former vice president of First Community Bank has been sentenced to five years in prison for her role in an embezzlement scheme, according to an announcement from U.S. Attorney Prim F. Escalona.
U.S. District Court Judge Liles C. Burke sentenced Kellie L. Johnson, 54, to 60 months in prison, followed by 60 months of supervised release. Johnson had pleaded guilty to bank embezzlement in May.
Court documents show that Johnson worked at First Community Bank for about 25 years. Between July 2013 and June 2023, she embezzled funds from the bank’s Federal Reserve account to pay personal expenses, including credit card bills. To hide her actions, Johnson falsified transactions to reconcile the balance of the Federal Reserve account in the bank’s general ledger and deleted her ACH transactions. She also altered account statements from the Federal Reserve before providing them to the bank president, auditors, and others.
The scheme came to light when the bank president received a call from the Federal Reserve about an overdrawn ACH account. When asked for the latest account statement, Johnson gave him a fraudulent document showing a positive balance. Over ten years, Johnson made approximately 273 fraudulent ACH transactions totaling more than $2.3 million and deprived the bank of $138,185.40 in interest income.
The case was investigated by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura D. Hodge.
"The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura D. Hodge prosecuted the case."
