Embezzler pleads guilty

A 52-year-old Charlo woman has pleaded guilty to embezzlement and money laundering after she admitted stealing $676,000 from the credit union branch in Polson that she managed.

Kathleen Louise Sammons entered the plea Tuesday during a federal court session in Missoula before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeremiah C. Lynch.

Sammons admitted stealing the money over the course of 12 years from 1998 to June 24, 2010, when a surprise audit of the Whitefish Credit Union branch uncovered the scheme.

She was visibly emotional Tuesday while she affirmed to the judge that she understood the consequences of the decision, which waived her right to a trial, and her right to appeal the sentence that will be imposed by U.S. District Judge Donald W. Malloy.

Sammons, who had been promoted to manager in 2000 and became vice president of the branch in 2009, told investigators that she used the money to donate to charities, make loan payments for customers, pay for high school functions and “in general enhanced her personal income,” according to an offer of proof provided by the U.S. District Attorney for Montana.

“Sammons kept her own accounting of the amount of money she had stolen over the years,” U.S. Assistant Attorney Kris A. McLean wrote. “When the rare cash audit occurred, Sammons was advised and took steps to hide her theft of cash from the vault.”

The federal offer of proof explains how Sammons embezzled the money by falsifying balance sheets during daily cash counts in the credit union’s vault.

She initially would write the correct sums on the sheet and have a second employee sign off on it, but later would change the amounts to account for the money she stole.

Sammons later sent copies of the balance sheets to the accounting department, effectively hiding the fact that the original amounts had been whited-out and replaced.

The money laundering charge was filed after investigators learned Sammons also had covered up her actions by withdrawing thousands of dollars from high-balance customers and placing it in the vault when she knew an audit would occur.

On one such occasion on Aug. 27, 2007, she transferred $210,000.

Sammons said she began stealing cash from a teller drawer in 1998. She was hired at the credit union in 1996.

Law enforcement officials initially searched for Sammons as a missing person on the same day auditors found the vault short more than $600,000 during their visit June 24 last year, according to the Lake County Leader.

Sammons allegedly contacted her friend, Bob Congdon, before fleeing town. Congdon told law enforcement officials Sammons visited his home the morning of June 24 and said she was in trouble at work since an auditor was set to visit the bank "as they spoke," according to court documents.

Before she left his home, Sammons told Congdon she planned to leave town with a friend. Her vehicle later was found at a vacant residence three miles east of Pablo.

Investigators caught up with Sammons on July 26, 2010, and she confessed to stealing the money, according to the offer of proof.

Sammons faces possible penalties of 30 years in prison, a $1 million fine and five years of supervised release. The investigation was a cooperative effort involving the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Criminal Investigation Division of the Internal Revenue Service.

A sentencing hearing for Sammons has been scheduled for July 6.