Bank officer sent to prison for embezzling $780K

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A former bank officer has been sentenced to more than 5 years in prison for an embezzlement scheme that involved taking money from customers.

Kathleen Matteson, 71, of Muskegon, was indicted on several charges last year, including bank fraud, embezzlement and identity theft. She was accused of stealing nearly $800,000 from customer accounts.

According to federal prosecutors, her scheme started in 2006 when she worked for a privately held wealth management company. She was accused of taking money from customer accounts, writing duplicate payroll checks to herself and submitting fake bills to her employer from a shell company that she owned.

It continued when West Shore Bank acquired her employer’s company in 2017 and ended when she retired at the end of 2019. In all, more than $780,000 was lost. Court records show Matteson spent most of the money gambling at casinos.

Matteson pleaded not guilty and went to trial in April. She was convicted on all charges.

Cheyvoryea Gibson, the special agent in charge of the FBI in Michigan, said the Department of Justice is committed to holding embezzlers accountable and protecting unsuspecting victims.

“Ms. Matteson’s deceitful actions, spanning over a decade and involving multiple fraudulent schemes, continued until her retirement, at which point she believed she had succeeded,” Gibson said in a statement . “She deliberately profited from these frauds at the expense of clients and her employer. The FBI remains committed to working with our partners from the U.S. Attorney’s Office to combat these serious white-collar crimes.”

Matteson will serve up to 61 months in prison followed by two years of supervised release.

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