A Higbee woman pleaded guilty in federal court on Thursday, July 25, 2024, to stealing almost $2.4 million from customers at a Fayette Bank during a 15-year-long embezzlement scheme.
According to a news release, Megan Lea Dougherty worked at the Fayette branch of Exchange Bank of Missouri and admitted to exploiting a lack of internal controls to embezzle money from customer accounts between January 1, 2009 and October 17, 2023.
According to prosecutors the scheme involved transferring funds from customer accounts into Dougherty’s own accounts or those of her family members.
Dougherty admitted to falsifying bank records to conceal the thefts and rotated targeted accounts to avoid detection.
She faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in federal prison without parole.