Former Banker Pleads Guilty To Embezzlement

Tampa, Florida - United States Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe announces that Jennifer Lamanna (49, Venice) today pleaded guilty to one count of theft or embezzlement by a bank employee and one count of making a false statement to an agency of the United States. Lamanna faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in federal prison for the embezzlement and up to 5 years for making a false statement. She has also agreed to forfeit $280,000, the proceeds of the charged criminal conduct. A sentencing date has not yet been set.

According to the plea agreement, Lamanna worked for an FDIC-insured financial institution. As a result of reduced in-branch staffing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Lamanna had sole access to and exercised control over a branch bank vault located in Venice, Florida. In 2020, Lamanna began using a contingency cash bag to steal cash from the vault, then physically removed the cash from the branch until the contingency cash bag program was discontinued. After the cash bag program ended, Lamanna continued to embezzle cash from the vault and deposited $255,362 in stolen funds into a bank account she controlled.

To balance out the vault and conceal her embezzlement, Lamanna made multiple large withdrawals and subsequent matching deposits out of a customer's account. To make the sham transactions appear legitimate, Lamanna filed fictitious Currency Transaction Reports. On June 8, 2023, Lamanna made a materially false statement to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a sub-agency of the U.S. Treasury Department, when she completed and submitted a Currency Transaction Report falsely stating that a bank customer deposited $160,100 in cash into his account knowing that no such deposit took place.

This case was investigated by Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation - Office of Inspector General and Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation, Tampa field office. It is being prosecuted by Special Assistant United States Attorney Chris Poor.