United States v. Matthews

48 F. App'x 168
Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit·Decided October 4, 2002·No. No. 00-5816·Published

Opinion

SILER, Circuit Judge.

Defendant Deborah Matthews appeals her convictions and sentence. Matthews argues that there was insufficient evidence to support her convictions, and that the district court erred in its calculation of the amount of loss. Neither of these arguments is persuasive, and we AFFIRM.

I.

Matthews was indicted on the following charges: bank fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1344(2); knowingly making false entries in bank records in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1005; making material false statements to federal investigators in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001; and two counts of embezzlement in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 656. She was convicted on the first three counts and acquitted on the two embezzlement counts. The district court sentenced Matthews to 33 months imprisonment.

Her convictions arose from her employment at the Montgomery and Traders Bank & Trust Co. in Mt. Sterling, Kentucky. According to trial testimony, Matthews discovered and extinguished a small fire in the bank’s vault at 12:17 p.m. on January 16,1996. When bank officers and firemen arrived, Matthews told them that the fire had consumed $143,000 in bundled currency that she had packaged for shipment that day to the Federal Reserve Bank. Matthews explained that she had placed the bag on or near an ashtray in the vault shortly after noon, and theorized that a burning cigarette left in the ashtray might have set the bag on fire.

The government presented extensive evidence that contradicted Matthews’s account. An FBI forensic expert testified that the amount of currency Matthews claimed she bagged for shipment would have weighed approximately 15.25 pounds and included 6,500 bills. However, video footage taken from bank security cameras showed Matthews entering the vault with only a small bag in her hand, one too small to have contained the amount and denominations she claimed. Photographs of the remains of the fire showed only a small amount of ash and 320 largely undamaged one dollar bills, with rubber bands and paper bill wrappers still on them. The [170]*170FBI’s expert testified that, in order to achieve the total destruction by fire of $143,000 as Matthews claimed, he had to douse the bills in gasoline and burn them in a special container for nearly two hours — far longer than the 15-minute period between Matthews’s placement of the bag in the vault and her discovery of the fire.

Other evidence incriminated Matthews. FBI Special Agent Gary Ludwiek, relying on various bank records, explained how Matthews used her position as a teller to falsely record hundreds of cash deposits to her account for which the bank did not in fact receive cash, and then wrote checks against these amounts. By claiming to receive money the bank did not in fact receive, Matthews created a discrepancy between the cash attributed to her teller drawer in the bank’s general ledger and the cash actually present there. This discrepancy, Ludwiek testified, was $143,-000 — the amount Matthews claimed was destroyed in the fire. Other witnesses then explained how Matthews used her supervisory position to violate bank policy, which required regular counts of tellers’ cash drawers, in order to avoid detection of her deception. Ludwiek further testified that, at the time of the fire, Matthews carried credit card balances of $35,640, with a minimum monthly payment of $1,371, which exceeded her monthly salary of $1,100. The government also introduced a “prayer book” found at Matthews’s teller station after the fire, which contained incriminating entries in her handwriting, such as “Please God, forgive me my sins and please, Dear Lord, don’t let me get caught. Help me to pay back all of the money that I owe the bank.” Finally, bank Vice-President Pat Rogers testified that a change in bank policy, which required that she personally conduct all counts of teller drawers, made discovery of Matthews’s deception imminent.

On the basis of the above evidence, the prosecution argued at trial that Matthews, with reason to believe her embezzlement would be detected, prepared a small bag of one dollar bills, which she placed in the vault and ignited. When the fire was detected, the prosecution argued, Matthews falsely told bank officials, insurance investigators and the FBI that the fire had destroyed $143,000 in currency, a ruse that would explain the discrepancy between the money attributed to her in the general ledger and the amount present in her teller drawer.

II.

The standard of review for a claim of insufficient evidence is whether, after viewing the facts in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. See Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). A district court’s determination of the amount of loss is a finding of fact which this court reviews for clear error. See United States v. Guthrie, 144 F.3d 1006, 1011 (6th Cir.1998).

A. Bank Fraud

To support a conviction for bank fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1344(2), the United States must show that: (1) the defendant knowingly executed or attempted to execute a scheme to defraud a financial institution; (2) the defendant acted with intent to defraud the bank; and (3) the bank was insured by the FDIC. See United States v. Everett, 270 F.3d 986, 989 (6th Cir.2001).

Matthews argues that the government’s evidence was insufficient to prove that she knowingly executed a scheme to defraud the bank or had the intent to do so. In particular, she argues that the government [171]*171presented no evidence sufficient to contradict her claim that the deposits she credited to her account and to her mother’s account represented actual physical receipts of cash. Matthews offered two explanations for the deposits. First, she told insurance investigators that the excess income came from $60,000-$70,000 her mother kept in a safe deposit box at the bank. At trial, she offered a second explanation — that the money came from her husband, who frequently dealt with large cash sums as part of his horse-trading business.

Her argument is unpersuasive. Special Agent Ludwick testified that Matthews recorded more than $144,000 in excess cash deposits (ie., beyond her salary) to her checking account and to that of her mother, Pauline Cockell, in the six years preceding the fire. Supporting his findings with various documentary exhibits, Ludwick then explained that Matthews recorded most or all of these deposits as transfers from her mother’s savings account, and that this account showed a zero balance at the time the transfers were made. Ludwick further explained how Matthews wrote checks against these fake deposits.

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United States v. Matthews, 48 F. App'x 168 (6th Cir. 2002).

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