Ex-teller tells court she stole from bank

A Crittenden County woman indicted on a charge of embezzling more than $300,000 from a bank where she worked as a vault teller pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to one count of embezzling bank funds, for which she could be sentenced to as much as 30 years in prison and fined $1 million.

Pamela Cooper, 63, of Marion, was indicted in July 2021 after she was accused of embezzling an estimated $314,000 between January 2019 and December 2020 from Premier Bank of Arkansas in Marion. Cooper entered the plea Tuesday before U.S. District Judge James M. Moody Jr.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Cameron McCree said that Cooper was fired from the bank on Dec. 22, 2020, after a surprise count of the bank’s cash vault the previous month that revealed a shortage of about $200,000. After that discovery, McCree said, bank officials conducted a full branch audit of all automatic teller machines, teller drawers and recycler machines — which McCree said dispenses cash for tellers similar to the way an automatic teller machine dispenses cash to bank customers — which revealed an additional $94,000 missing from bank funds.

“The only remaining location to be audited was Cooper’s teller drawer,” McCree said.

Because Cooper left the bank to attend a funeral and then went on vacation on Dec. 3, 2020, immediately after being told of the audit, McCree said, her teller drawer could not be audited until her return on Dec. 15, 2020. Upon opening her teller drawer, he said, bank officials found $5,136.34 contained in the drawer.

“Bank records showed Cooper’s drawer should have contained $25,136.34,” McCree said, “and was thus short $20,000.”

McCree said a surprise audit conducted on Oct. 28, 2019, that would have shown a shortage of money was thwarted when Cooper purportedly transferred $94,000 from the vault to the recycler and falsified cash in/cash out tickets to the recycler to make it appear

as if no money was missing. Otherwise, he said, the theft would have been discovered more than a year earlier.

“The internal investigation revealed Cooper was the only employee with access to both the recycler and the vault,” McCree said.

An FBI investigation turned up evidence that Cooper was a regular gambler at Southland Casino in West Memphis and that records subpoenaed from the casino showed that from November 2019 until December 2020 Cooper had lost a total of $311,925.34 during that 13-month period.

“Cooper only made approximately $30,000 a year with the bank,” McCree said.

“If this case were to go to trial,” Moody asked Cooper, “do you believe the government could prove each and every fact that Mr. McCree just read into the record?”

“Yes, sir,” Cooper answered.

“Is that because those facts are true?” he asked.

“Yes, sir,” Cooper repeated. “Do you admit to taking these funds from the bank,” asked Moody, after a long pause.

“Yes, Your Honor” Cooper answered, her voice strained.

McCree, at Moody’s request, then said the elements of the crime that established the offense were that Cooper had abused a position of trust, that the amount of money she embezzled or misapplied was more than $1,000, that her intent was to defraud the bank, and that the bank’s funds were federally insured.

“How do you plead?” Moody asked.

“Guilty, Your Honor,” Cooper replied, her voice beginning to break.

“Is that because you are, indeed and in fact guilty, Ms. Cooper?” Moody asked.

“Yes, Your Honor,” she replied, almost at a whisper.

After Moody explained the pre-sentencing report process, Cooper’s attorney, Molly Sullivan with the federal public defenders office in Little Rock, asked Moody to modify Cooper’s conditions of release to allow her to travel to Shelby County, Tenn., to visit her grandchildren.

“Every time she travels we have to file a motion,” Sullivan said, “which is fine, I don’t mind doing that but she had her grandchildren for a time this summer while her children were in California and she’s concerned if she had to take one to the doctor that every time they go to their pediatrician we’d have to file a motion.”

After determining where Cooper’s grandchildren live and that she was not requesting blanket permission to travel out of state, Moody granted the request.

After completion of the pre-sentencing report by the U.S. probation office in Little Rock, a sentencing date for Cooper will be set.