A former BB&T branch employee pleaded guilty today to embezzling more than a half million dollars from customer accounts. Federal prosecutors say Anna Holt worked at the Pearisburg branch over the four years in question. She faces sentencing in December and could get up to 30 years.
From the U.S. Attorney’s office: ABINGDON, VIRGINIA – A BB&T employee, who over a period of approximately four years embezzled over a half-million dollar, faces up to 30 years in federal prison after she pleaded guilty today in the federal court in Abingdon to embezzlement charges, Acting United States Attorney Rick A. Mountcastle announced. Anna B. Holt, 48, of Staffordsville, Va., waived her right to be indicted and pleaded guilty today to embezzlement by a bank employee of moneys of the bank or entrusted to the custody of the bank. Holt worked for BB&T Bank as a branch banker at the New River Branch in Pearisburg, Virginia.
The defendant admitted today that from around 2013 to August 2017, while being employed at the bank, she embezzled a total of $565,790.41 from 14 separate accounts holders. Holt used various methods to embezzle the money, including making withdrawals from customer accounts, cashing customers’ bonds and keeping the proceeds, and creating fake credit accounts in the names of relatives and withdrawing the loan proceeds. Some of the money embezzled was used to repay accounts from which Holt had previously stolen money. Sentencing is scheduled for December 19, 2017, at 2:30 p.m. before United States District Court Judge James P. Jones in Abingdon. The investigation of the case was conducted by the United States Secret Service. Assistant United States Attorney Randy Ramseyer is prosecuting the case for the United States.
