A former First Tennessee bank manager in Greeneville, Tenn., must pay more than $1 million in restitution after being sentenced to 36 months in prison for embezzlement and tax evasion.
Kenneth L. Miller, 37, worked at First Tennessee from May 2000 until February 2016, during which time he embezzled nearly $1 million from bank customers. He spent or lost most of the money through online gambling, according to a news release from the Department of Justice.
Miller pleaded guilty after federal investigators confronted him with evidence of his theft and tax evasion, the release said.
As part of his plea agreement, he admitted to "earning and then abusing the trust of various clients by telling them falsely that he would engage in financial transactions for their benefit and using his position as a manager of the bank to identify clients who he knew did not review their monthly statements and also to identify inactive accounts," according to the release. "He knew the owners of such accounts would be unlikely to detect the embezzlement."
Miller also failed to pay taxes on the funds he admitted to embezzling, evading a total of $161,018 in tax payments from 2012 through 2015.
First Tennessee later reimbursed most of the losses to its account holders after it found out about Miller's scheme.
Miller will serve five years of probation after he gets out of federal prison.
"The defendant engaged in a pattern of illegal, unauthorized transactions which violated the bank customers' confidence and trust," said Renae McDermott, FBI special agent in charge of the Bureau's Knoxville division. "Today's sentencing sends a message that the FBI will actively investigate and pursue prosecution of persons in a position of trust and hold them accountable for their actions."