Woman Banker from Gilberts Charged with 15-Year $3 Milllion Embezzlement to Feed Gambling Habit

A press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office:

FORMER BURLING BANK EXECUTIVE ALLEGEDLY STOLE $3 MILLION FROM BANK OVER 15 YEARS; USED MONEY TO GAMBLE

CHICAGO — A former executive of Burling Bank in Chicago was indicted on federal bank fraud charges for stealing more than $3 million from the bank over the course of approximately 15 years and using the funds primarily for gambling. The defendant, Dora Asmussen, held various bank positions, including

  • chief operating officer and
  • executive vice president,

placing her in charge of the bank’s daily retail transactions, as well as certain accounting and record-keeping activities.

The alleged fraud occurred between approximately 1997 and August 2012.

Top of Burling Bank web site.

Asmussen, 52, of Gilberts, located in Kane County, was charged with three counts of bank fraud in an indictment returned yesterday by a federal grand jury.

She will be arraigned at a later date in U.S. District Court. The indictment also seeks forfeiture of $3,074,532.

The charges were announced today by Gary S. Shapiro, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and William C. Monroe, Acting Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s Office of Inspector General also assisted in the investigation.

According to the indictment, Asmussen stole funds from the bank by fraudulently issuing checks drawn on her personal account at the bank and cashier’s checks, as well as misappropriating customers’ checks, and then used banks funds to cover the payment of those checks.

She made false entries in the bank’s internal records to steal the funds and conceal the thefts.

After drawing checks on her personal account, Asmussen prevented them from clearing and being debited to her account by physically removing those checks when they were delivered to Burling Bank by the Federal Reserve Bank, the indictment alleges.

She then made false entries in bank records, causing payments to be made from the bank’s funds to the payees on her personal checks.

At times, Asmussen allegedly used cashier’s checks payable to herself or her creditors, and in some instances forged the signature of the bank employee purportedly issuing the cashier’s checks.

She also misappropriated certain checks that customers deposited at the bank, manually entered credits to the customers’ accounts, and then debited the bank’s general ledger account in corresponding amounts to cover those checks, the charges allege.

She then deposited the customers’ checks into her own bank accounts, usually through automated teller machines.

To conceal her scheme, Asmussen allegedly provided false information to the FDIC, state regulators, the bank’s board of directors, and its auditors.

Bank fraud carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine, or an alternate fine totaling twice the loss or twice the gain, whichever is greater, and restitution is mandatory. If convicted, the Court must impose a reasonable sentence under federal statutes and the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines.

The government is being represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacqueline Stern.

The public is reminded that an indictment contains only charges and is not evidence of guilt. The defendant is presumed innocent and is entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.


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