FORMER FIRST CENTURY BANK BRANCH MANAGER
SENTENCED IN $600,000 BANK FRAUD CASE
KNOXVILLE,
TENNESSEE—Connie
Smith Dyer Hunley, 40, formerly Connie Smith Dyer, of
Maynardville, Tennessee, was sentenced today by the Honorable Thomas A. Varlan,
United States District
Judge, to serve forty-one (41) months in prison, and to pay $600,000 in restitution,
followed by five (5) years
of supervised release. The sentence followed Hunley's guilty plea to bank fraud
charges on April 19, 2006.
On April 17, 2006, United States Attorney James R. Dedrick filed an Information
in the United
States District Court charging Hunley with engaging in a scheme to defraud
First Century Bank by
embezzling funds from First Century Bank customer accounts and fraudulently
obtaining loans in First
Century Bank customer names without the customers' knowledge.
According to court documents, Hunley admitted that while working as a manager
of First Century
Bank, Maynardville, Tennessee, she prepared and submitted false and fraudulent
loan applications in the
names of First Century Bank customers without the customers' permission and
fraudulently obtained the
proceeds of the loans. Hunley further admitted that while working as a manager
of First Century Bank,
Maynardville, Tennessee, she embezzled money from the checking and savings
accounts of First Century
Bank customers. Hunley admitted that she used the embezzled funds and fraudulent
loan proceeds for her
personal benefit, to make payments on prior loans that she had fraudulently
approved, to conceal her
embezzlement of funds previously embezzled from other First Century Bank customer
accounts, and to
conceal her violations of First Century Bank policy in approving loans to individuals
who did not qualify
for such loans under First Century Bank's loan approval guidelines.
Hunley admitted that her scheme to defraud First Century Bank through embezzlement
and
fraudulent loans caused the bank a loss of $600,000. United States Attorney
Russ Dedrick said that bank
fraud by bank officials will not be tolerated. Dedrick praised the investigative
efforts of the Federal Bureau
of Investigation and the handling of this case by AUSA Hamilton and the staff
of the United States
Attorney's Office in Knoxville, Tennessee.
This investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant
U.S. Attorney
F. M. (Trey) Hamilton III represented the government. For further information,
contact Acting U.S.
Attorney James R. Dedrick, Assistant U.S. Attorney F. M. Hamilton III, or Public
Information Officer Sharry
Dedman-Beard, at 865-545-4167.
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