Contact Person: Winston David Holliday, Jr. (803) 929-3000
Columbia, South Carolina ---- United States Attorney Beth Drake stated today that Jennifer Lyons Martin, age 34, of Ehrhardt, pled guilty in federal court in Columbia to Theft by a Bank Employee, a violation of Title 18, United States Code, § 656. United States District Judge J. Michelle Childs of Columbia accepted the guilty plea and will sentence her at a later date.
Evidence presented at the change of plea hearing established that Jennifer Lyons Martin worked for South State Bank in the Bamberg Branch as a vault teller. During an audit in 2015, over $100,000 was discovered missing. Martin was approached and confessed to taking almost $300,000 beginning in 2013 and lasting through September 2015. She had two personal checking accounts and four savings accounts at South State that she funneled the money into. She spent almost all of it on restaurants, shopping, travel, and living expenses.
Ms. Drake stated the maximum penalty for this offense is imprisonment for thirty years and a fine of $1,000,000.
The case was investigated by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Winston David Holliday, Jr. of the Columbia office is prosecuting the case.
#####