Former Trust Bank Employee Pleads Guilty: $2.3m Embezzlement

Also Agrees to Pay More than $500,000 in Restitution to IRS

 

OKLAHOMA CITY – Last week, JORDAN GLEN YOUNG, of Oklahoma City, pleaded guilty to wire fraud and signing a false federal income tax return, in connection with a $2.3 million embezzlement from an Oklahoma City trust bank, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Robert J. Troester.

On December 21, 2020, Young was charged by Information with one count of wire fraud and one count of filing a false federal income tax return.  From 2006 through March 2020, Young worked at an Oklahoma City trust bank as a Trust Administrative Officer.  Young oversaw trust accounts and distributed funds from those accounts to the beneficiaries as needed.

On February 22, 2021, Young pleaded guilty to making an unauthorized distribution, in the amount of $60,706.53, to his personal checking account from a trust account he was managing in October 2018.  As part of his plea, Young admitted that he embezzled funds from his former employer from December 2015 through March 2020, and stipulated that the total loss to the trust bank from his embezzlement scheme was $2,323,036.91.

In addition to wire fraud, Young also pleaded guilty to signing a false federal income tax return.  He admitted that on April 15, 2019, he signed a personal federal income tax return for the 2018 calendar year that he knew was false because it reported only $114,439 in total income.  At the plea hearing, Young admitted that he omitted on the 2018 tax return thousands of dollars of embezzled income from the trust bank.

At sentencing, Young faces up to 20 years in federal prison on the wire fraud count, plus three years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine.  Young also faces up to three years in federal prison on the tax count, in addition to one year of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine.  As part of the plea agreement, Young agreed to pay restitution to the trust bank in the amount of $2,323,036.91, and he agreed to pay restitution for tax loss to the Internal Revenue Service in the amount of $500,822.  Young will be sentenced in approximately 90 days.

This case is the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Bow Bottomly and Chris M. Stephens.