A former senior teller at Exchange National Bank & Trust in Atchison, Kan., has been sentenced to prison time and ordered to pay restitution after pleading guilty to an embezzlement scheme.
Ashley Blacketer, 29, was sentenced Tuesday to four months in prison followed by four months of home detention, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office District of Kansas. She was also ordered to pay $523,303 in restitution to the bank and its insurance company.
Blacketer, of Leavenworth, Kan., who worked at the $396 million-asset bank for about nine years, pleaded guilty to one count of embezzlement by a bank employee.
Blacketer embezzled more than $500,000 from the bank, according to the release. Between 2010 and 2016, she falsified cash ledgers to overstate the amount of cash in the bank's vault, according to court documents. The bank ordered an audit of its cash on hand and learned of Blacketer's theft two months after she quit to work for another bank.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation interviewed Blacketer, who initially lied but later admitted to the crime when agents confronted her with spreadsheets that revealed different totals.
The bank and Blacketer's attorney were not immediately available for comment.
