ROCHESTER, N.Y.–A former credit union employee has been charged with embezzling more than $60,000 over the one-year period.
Arrested was Jihan Davis, who worked at Lexington Federal Credit Union from July 2015 until August 2016. During that time, she was one of two employees at the branch - both of which had half of the vault combination.
While Davis' co-worker was on maternity leave from January to March 2016, federal prosecutors alleged a co-worker gave her half of the vault combination, allowing Davis full access to the vault.
“When cash had to be removed from the vault, it would be placed into a machine called a cash recycler, which accepts and dispenses cash for bank tellers,” WHAM reported. “The cash recycler continually malfunctioned, which Davis admitted she used to her advantage for several months.”
According to prosecutors, Davis allegedly signed slips to make it appear cash was put into the cash recycler or her teller drawer, when she would in fact deposit the cash into her own personal bank account or put it to personal use.
Additional Allegations
Prosecutors further alleged Davis would swap out currency in bundles of cash. A typical bundle of $10,000 would contain all $20 bills. Federal agents said Davis would change the bills so it "contained two twenty dollar bills on the top, two twenty dollar bills on the bottom, and all one dollar bills in between,” WHAM said.
Prosecutors alleged Davis did so on at least four separate occasions; it resulted in $63,080 that Davis allegedly embezzled from the credit union. Federal agents said Davis admitted to using $10,000 of the stolen money as a down payment on a car and using most of the rest for personal expenses.
Lexington FCU closed the branch in August of 2016 and both Davis and her coworker were let go. At that time, the discrepancies were discovered by the interim CEO.
Davis was arrested and charged last week. She is scheduled to be in federal court in Rochester on May 16 at 9:30 a.m.