CHARLESTON, S.C. – A former accounts manager at South Carolina FCU who helped embezzle about $330,000 by withdrawing money from inactive accounts was sentenced Monday to 18 month in prison.
An emotional Jason Kizer also agreed to pay restitution of about $146,000.
Kizer, 32, and his accomplice, Robert Tam, 42, a risk analyst at the credit union, found accounts with little or no activity, then issued credit/debit cards in the names of those members, according to prosecutors. Kizer used those cards to withdraw cash from ATMs not equipped with security cameras, and split the money with Tam.
The fraud was carried on from 2005 until last fall, when the two workers were fired from their jobs at the credit union’s Summerville branch.
One member had died in 1999 and, unknown to her family, continued receiving monthly pension checks from the federal government for $1,600. Tam and Kizer embezzled more than $130,000 from that account through 545 ATM withdrawals, prosecutors said.
As part of his work with the anti-fraud department, Tam credited accounts for losses.
The FBI conducted surveillance and, in October, agents caught Kizer withdrawing $500 from an ATM and immediately afterward meeting Tam in the parking lot.
The credit union fired the men that day, and the next week the FBI served a search warrant on Kizer's safe-deposit box, which contained about $50,000 in cash.
Attorneys at Monday’s hearing described Tam as the main instigator, who approached Kizer about issuing credit card in the names of those members, according to the indictment.
Tam’s sentencing, which had been scheduled for Monday, was postponed to an undetermined date.
