An ex-branch manager at Comerica was sentenced to federal prison Monday for stealing from an elderly customer with dementia and using the funds to pay for spa days, Tiffany jewelry and gambling trips to Las Vegas.
Marie Fulle of Newport Beach, Calif., was ordered to spend 41 months in prison and pay $1.09 million in restitution for embezzling money from a man with whom Fulle developed an “exclusive banking relationship” from February 2013 to April 2014 while working at a Comerica branch in Tustin near Los Angeles, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said in a news release.
The sentencing comes after Fulle pleaded guilty in September 2019 to two counts of bank fraud.
Fulle opened several bank accounts with the victim during the 15-month period and started conducting unauthorized transfers and forging withdrawals using cashier’s checks, according to the release. At one point, she changed the mailing address on one account so that statements showing withdrawals would not be delivered to the victim or his bookkeeper and then began funneling a large portion of the victim’s money through that account as part of her scheme.
Comerica fired Fulle in April 2014 when it discovered she was embezzling money from her cash drawer, the release said. When the Dallas bank realized the fraud she committed against the victim, it reimbursed the victim nearly $1.3 million including lost interest and attorney’s fees.
Fulle was sentenced by videoconference by U.S. District Judge Virginia A. Phillips.
The case was investigated by the FBI.
