A former vice president and senior loan officer with Lone Star National Bank pleaded guilty to two counts of bank fraud on Tuesday.
Emma Vigil appeared before U.S. District Court Judge Randy Crane on Wednesday afternoon.
The 48-year-old banker admitted to stealing more than $600,000 dollars through fraudulent and unauthorized debit transactions from her clients’ bank accounts.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas reported that the theft took place over a two-year period starting in 2007.
Vigil admitted to targeting customers with high balances and transactions activities as a way to mask the scheme.
The McAllen woman would fill out a checking or savings account withdrawal slip with a client’s account information and present the slip to a teller for cash.
In other cases, she would fill out a loan advance slip with a client’s loan account information and request a teller to create a cashier’s check made out to the client.
Vigil would later forge the client’s name on the endorsement line and present the check to a teller for cash.
Prosecutors said Vigil told bank tellers that she was going to deposit the cash into her client’s account but then turned around and deposited the cash into her bank accounts.
A motive for the embezzlement was not identified but court records show that Vigil remains free on bond.
Judge Crane ordered Vigil for sentencing on March 3, 2010 where faces up to 30 years in prison and a $1,000,000 dollar fine.