ESTHERVILLE, IOWA – A woman who moved out of state has been sent to federal prison for embezzling nearly $300,000 from a Northern Iowa bank.
Cindy Harris, age 51, currently from Missoula, Montana, received a 6-month prison term after a June 22, 2017, guilty plea to one count of bank theft, embezzlement and misapplication of funds.
At the guilty plea, Harris admitted that from about 2002 and continuing through about July 2013, when she was an employee of the Emmet County State Bank, she willfully embezzled approximately $299,327.50, in cash and coin from the bank vault without the permission of the bank and with the intent to defraud the bank.
Harris was sentenced in Sioux City by United States District Court Chief Judge Leonard T. Strand. Harris was sentenced to three months in federal prison, to be followed by three months of electronically monitored home confinement. A special assessment of $100 was imposed, and she was ordered to make restitution in the amount of, $299,327. Harris must also serve a four-year term of supervised release after the prison term.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.
