Former assistant bank manager in Ohio gets nearly 6 years for $1.5M fraud over 14 years

4/5/2011

CLEVELAND — An assistant bank manager who stole nearly $1.5 million over 14 years in Ohio by juggling accounts has been sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison.

Sixty-six-year-old Joanne Kuchna of Seven Hills was sentenced Tuesday in federal court in Cleveland on her guilty plea last year to defrauding Charter One Bank.

Prosecutors say she covered up the fraud dating back to 1995 by forging customer signatures, juggling money between accounts and creating phony tax-reporting forms.

Relatives wrote to the judge asking for leniency, and Kuchna’s doctor said her lung cancer is in remission and requires close monitoring.