A US banker has admitted to committing fraud of $2.3 million over 15 years. The banker drained several customers’ accounts and sent the money to herself and her family members. The 36-year-old Megan Lea Dougherty pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud for stealing $2.393 million. The data breach from the US bank was operational for a decade and a half before her crimes finally caught up.
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Prosecutors say Dougherty began draining bank accounts from January 1, 2009, to October 17, 2023 at the Exchange Bank of Missouri. She targeted customers who knew her and trusted her and used it as their weakness. Dougherty started draining small amounts of money from their bank accounts to her account and employed multiple strategies to avoid detection. Data breaches in US banks are serious offenses that can lead to years in prison if they are found guilty.
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US Bank Data Breach: Modus Operandi of Employee Who Stole $2.3 Million
Dougherty kept a rotation of customers’ funds to steal from and sent them to her account and family members’ accounts. She also faked the descriptions of the transfers in the bank’s computer systems to avoid detection. She is now facing a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison without parole for the US bank data breach.
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“At the time that 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 over a dozen other customers were also victims of Dougherty’s theft. Still, those accounts were reimbursed when she moved onto victimizing new accounts,” said prosecutors about the US bank data breach.
The former US bank employee who indulged in fraud and data breach must also forfeit her stake in nine land parcels in Howard County, Missouri to the government. The court ordered that she must also return the stolen amount of $2.393 million to the government.