SAN DIEGO – A former supervisor at the Pacific Marine CU branch at Camp Pendleton was sentenced Monday to 18 months in federal prison for stealing $100,000 in cash from the branch nearly nine years ago.
Erin Lovellette, now 31, snatched a brick of tightly wrapped $100 bills – a stack about the size of a tissue box – while at work on May 2, 2002, according to prosecutors. Over the next few months she deposited about half of the money into a number of accounts at other financial institutions, always keeping the deposits under $10,000 to avoid the federal requirement that banks report currency transactions of $10,000 or more.
The deposits made up most of the evidence against Lovellette, who was not arrested until 2009. At the time, she was working at a financial institution in Idaho.
In addition to the theft, the jury convicted Lovellette of failing to pay taxes on the stolen cash.