A Macon woman pleaded guilty to embezzling $624,608 and falsifying bank credit union records in U.S. District Court on Monday. The woman’s actions occurred from 2001 to 2007 at a Macon credit union. The former head bank teller took the money from the credit union’s vault and teller drawers.

The Georgia woman faces up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine for each act committed over the time period of seven years. The missing amount was revealed in a 2007 bank audit that was unplanned. Following the audit, the woman admitted to FBI agents that she was responsible for the lost money.

The woman tried to hide the missing money from credit union officials through the creation of false entries on teller drawer records, vault records, and other credit union documents. Of the more unconventional statement entries made and knowing that the information was inaccurate, the former head teller listed that the bank vault contained over $500,000 in nickels.

The Macon teller spent a significant amount of her career at the credit union working for the same credit union for 17 years. The woman was responsible for making currency orders from the regional Federal Reserve bank, creating entries on the credit union’s vault ledger and teller balance sheets and supervising the other tellers at the credit union.

The teller had very little to say in court on Monday, and the woman’s attorney is reserving her comments until after sentencing. The judge for the case will assign the woman’s sentence in the next 60 to 90 days.

Source: Macon.com, “Ex-Macon Teller Pleads Guilty in Embezzlement,” Julie Hubbard, 9/21/10