LUDLOW, Ky. — Reagan France, a former bank manager at Home Savings Bank on Elm Street in Ludlow and a former Bromley City Council member, was indicted in federal court on 22 counts of financial crimes, including embezzlement and bank fraud, last week.
Court documents indicate that France allegedly pilfered at least $21,000 (possibly more) from bank customer accounts between July 2022 and May 2024.
“We hold ourselves to the highest standards of ethics and security,” said Stephanie Berry, President of Home Savings Bank, in a written statement. ”Maintaining the trust of our customers is our highest priority. We deeply regret that these incidents occurred and are fully committed to making things right for those affected.”
The statement indicates that any affected customers have been reimbursed and that the bank has cooperated with law enforcement officials on the investigation. Reagan apparently left the bank on the last day of 2024; court documents state she resigned. The bank declined to comment further when contacted.
Reagan was first hired on as a bank teller in 2015. She famously secured a spot on the Bromley City Council by just one vote in 2020. She was reelected in 2022 and became a bank manager in 2023, a new role that granted her access to the back ends of customer accounts and information therein.
Watch: WCPO talked to Reagan in 2020 after the election she won by just one vote
In “over 100 unauthorized transactions,” according to court documents, Reagan squirreled money out of customer accounts in three primary ways. The first was by simply moving cash out of accounts and into accounts belonging either to her or her family members.
The second way was by removing cash from customer accounts and then forging withdrawal slips to make it seem like customers had removed the money themselves.
Finally, she would stop payment on escrow refund checks, “issuing new checks in a reduced amount, and depositing the difference to another customer victims’ accounts to reimburse them for previous unauthorized withdrawals,” according to court documents, essentially moving money around between accounts in an effort to cover her tracks. Reagan allegedly used multiple bank teller ID numbers to pull this off.
Complete names of the alleged victims are not listed in the court documents. Instead, they’re identified with initials. Six distinct initial combinations appear in the filings, corresponding to $21,000 worth of transactions. The total amount allegedly taken over the aforementioned 100 transactions is not elicited in the documents.
These alleged crimes have landed France with charges of violating a variety of federal laws, including ones against bank fraud, embezzlement and using identification documents to make illegal transfers.
Charges were grouped into three clusters. If found guilty of first the two, France could get up to 30 years in prison for each (plus more years of supervised release), as well $1 million in fines. The third could net her two more years in prison.
Additionally, if found guilty, France may have to pay restitution and be forced to forfeit any property to recoup the money she allegedly stole from the bank customers.
France’s attorney was not immediately available to comment, but we will update this story if she responds to our inquiry.
The bank’s statement indicates it has instituted a new set of internal controls to prevent incidents like this from happening again, although it was slim on the details.
”We understand the trust our customers place in us,” Berry said. “That trust is our highest priority. We are taking every step necessary to prevent this from ever happening again.”
France is due back in court for a hearing on Wednesday, March 25
LINK nky is a media partner of WCPO.com.
