Covington embezzler gets
six months stealing $135,000

Covington resident, Loretta Balsamico, 51, was sentenced Tuesday in federal court to six months in jail, followed by six months of house arrest and 50 hours of community service after she pleaded guilty last July to the embezzling $135,800 while working at the Covington branch of the Citizens Savings Bank.

Balsamico’s position as vice-president made it possible for her to alter bank records and even schedule audits so that her theft would not be discovered. As vice-president, Balsamico was in charge of both the daily and timed vaults in the bank, as well as overseeing daily bank operations and supervising the bank tellers. She also had her own teller drawer which she would deposit bank money in case there were a large number of bank clients and she would have to help out the tellers.

Balsamico would allot money to the tellers and herself from the daily vault, but would record it as money taken from the timed safe. Then she would falsify the daily reports to show that all the money was accounted for in the timed vault. But all the while, she was taking money from her own teller drawer. According to the investigators, she took between $5,000 and $10,000 several times a month for over a year.

Balsamico was also in charge of internal audits that were conducted on both the daily and timed vaults. She would schedule these audits once per quarter. Because of this, she was able to schedule the audits during the times the bank would receive large amounts of cash, so there was the appearance that there was extra cash and nothing was missing from the vaults.

Ironically, it was a surprise audit that was the undoing of Balsamico’s embezzlement scheme. An employee arriving early to work Sept. 6, 2007, accidentally set off the bank’s alarm. Balsamico was notified at her home and she told the employee on how to reset the alarm. During the conversation, the employee told Balsamico that people had arrived at the bank to perform a surprise audit. The auditors discovered the missing $135,800.

Later that day she came to the bank and admitted to the theft, and turned herself in to the New Orleans office of the FBI.

Balmasico, who was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Jay Zainey, could have received 10 years in jail and a fine of $250,000. After her six months of house confinement, she will be on two years of supervised release.