An American banker has admitted to stealing millions of dollars from clients’ accounts in a scheme that lasted 15 years.
The United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri says Megan Lea Dougherty, 36, pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud for stealing $2.393 million from more than a dozen customer accounts at the Exchange Bank of Missouri.
Prosecutors say Dougherty emptied the accounts from Jan. 1, 2009, through Oct. 17, 2023, after discovering a weakness in his employer’s internal controls.
Targeting clients who knew and trusted her, Dougherty transferred small amounts of money from their accounts to her savings account and, later, to her checking account.
Prosecutors also say Dougherty employed multiple strategies to avoid detection.
She would transfer some of the stolen funds into family members’ checking accounts. She also kept a rotation of customer accounts to steal from, taking money from one account to reimburse another. To keep her theft secret, Dougherty falsified descriptions of the transfers in the bank’s computer systems.
“At the time Exchange Bank of Missouri discovered the theft, Dougherty was actively stealing from seven different bank customers, some of whom had multiple accounts affected. Records reveal that more than a dozen other customers were also victims of Dougherty’s theft, but those accounts were refunded when she moved on to victimize new accounts.”
Dougherty now faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison without parole. He must also forfeit to the government his interest in nine parcels of land in Howard County, Missouri, along with a monetary judgment of $2.393 million.
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