By Jeremy Pittari, Item Staff Writer
The Picayune Item
PICAYUNE —
Two Pearl River County women are charged in federal court with the embezzlement of more than $100,000 worth of cash from a local bank while they were employed as tellers between 2004 and 2005.
The defendants, 37-year-old Vonetta Jordan of Poplarville and 43-year-old Debra Mitchell of Carriere are listed in indictments filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi.
According to the court documents filed on Nov. 27, Jordan was the head teller at Union Planters in Picayune, now Regions Bank, and during her employment at the bank between April of 2004 and February of 2005 she made fraudulent entries into the electronic general ledger account system and then reversed those entries in order to disguise the embezzlement of money.
Each defendant’s indictment seeks to recoup at least a monetary judgment of $117,883.25, the court documents state.
The indictment against Jordan states she put the cash she embezzled from the bank in her purse for her personal use.
Mitchell, also listed as Debra Wesselman on the indictment filed on Nov. 30, took money from the bank to put in her purse for her personal use or deposited the funds into her personal bank account, the indictment states.
To conceal the embezzlement, the indictment states Mitchell and Jordan kept a running balance of the money embezzled and then made fraudulent entries, making the vault appear balanced.
Jordan is charged with 12 counts of making false entries, which were made between April of 2004 and January of 2005, one count of bank fraud and one count of mail fraud, the indictment states. Mitchell is charged with one count of bank fraud, her indictment states.
