Milford woman sentenced after embezzling close to $1 million

MILFORD, Ohio - A Milford woman was sentenced Wednesday after embezzling $911,000 from the bank where she worked.

Kimberly Fergusun, 53, of Milford was sentenced in U.S. District Court to 27 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution for embezzling close to $1 million dollars from the bank where she worked as a vault teller.

Ferguson was an employee of U.S. Bank for approximately 33 years, primarily at the Hyde Park branch. She used her position as the vault teller at the branch to embezzle thousands of dollars from the bank for her personal benefit and created fraudulent "cash in transit" slips to disguise the scheme, according to officials.

In total, from 1997 through February 2012, Ferguson embezzled $911,000 in funds from the federally-insured bank. On average, this translates to stealing more than $60,000 in cash per year for 15 years, officials said.

"And bear in mind, this did not involve electronic transfers or checks," Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim Mangan wrote in a sentencing memorandum filed with the court before sentencing.

"The stolen funds consisted of cash that the defendant physically carried out of the bank," he added.

The scheme was detected when bank officials noticed that the defendant's branch had as many as 38 more transits slips per month than an average branch.

Ferguson pleaded guilty on Oct. 17, 2012 to one count of bank fraud.