A former Waldoboro branch manager for Camden National Bank was sentenced to 33 months in federal prison and ordered to pay more than $600,000 in restitution, in US District Court in Portland June 28.
Christina Torres-York, 40, of Warren, pleaded guilty to one count of embezzlement and misapplication of funds on Jan. 11.
The sentencing hearing took place over the course of two days, June 23 and June 28. Her sentence will begin on July 29. After she serves her 33-month sentence, she will face five years of supervised release.
According to an affidavit filed with Knox County Court on Feb. 8, 2010, by Danny Swindler, Vice President of Camden National Bank, Torres-York is reported to have embezzled about $750,000 from customers’ accounts. Swindler’s affidavit was part of a lawsuit Camden National Bank filed against Torres-York.
Embezzlement carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine, plus restitution payments. Although Torres-York’s guilty plea carried no binding agreement as to her sentence, she agreed to waive her right to appeal her sentence as long as she received no more than 33 months in prison, US District Judge George Singal said at the Jan. 11 hearing.
At the sentencing hearing, Judge D. Brock Hornby ordered Torres-York to pay $625,013.29 in restitution. That amount is split between Camden National Bank ($595,308.29) and Maine Contractors and Builders Alliance ($29,705). She will not face any fines other than a $100 court fee, because Hornby found that she is unable to pay any fines beyond the restitution payments, court officials said.
Torres-York also faces two civil lawsuits: one filed by Camden National Bank, and one filed by the Maine Contractors and Builders Alliance, from whom Torres-York allegedly took about $80,000. In separate court decisions, liens of $750,000 and $80,000 respectively have been placed on Torres-York’s property in response to those suits.
The court has not made a decision in either of those suits, Knox County Court officials said.
Torres-York had been employed at the bank for nearly 20 years when it came to the bank’s attention that for at least two years she had been making unauthorized withdrawals from five customers’ lines of credit and was fired on Oct. 16, 2009, according to Swindler’s affidavit.
The withdrawals total at least $749,402.23, “although the investigation is continuing,” according to Swindler’s affidavit.
“Torres-York would withdraw monies from [customers’] lines of credit and would then place the monies in other accounts, and in some cases, direct it to her benefit,” according to Swindler’s affidavit.
Three days after she was fired, bank employees discovered a letter from Torres-York left in a night deposit box in which she confesses that she “‘used several lines of credit’ and that she was ‘terribly sorry for the embarrassment [she] caused for Camden National Bank and [her] family,'” according to Swindler’s affidavit.
In her letter, Torres-York wrote that she was “‘relieved that this is finally over as I have struggled for a long time with this and it has caused me to not to be able to [sic] concentrate on my work,'” according to Swindler’s affidavit.
Torres-York reportedly asked in her letter that her 401(K) be used to pay at least partial restitution to Camden National Customers, a request that the bank has asked the courts to uphold, according to their lawsuit.
“Again I am so sorry it became a mess,” Torres-York wrote, according to Swindler’s affidavit. “I will not be in at 8, as I can not (sic) hold up my head any longer, ashamed at what has happened and what I have done to so many people that trusted me.”
Swindler’s affidavit concludes by saying that “Camden National has adjusted the individual customer’s [sic] lines of credit to remove and/or repay any unauthorized withdrawal and fees. But to date, [the bank has] not recovered” the money embezzled by Torres-York.
The MCBA filed suit against Torres-York on Jan. 21, 2010, for the total funds she allegedly took, as well as court and attorney fees and punitive damages.
Torres-York served as the volunteer treasurer for the non-profit organization for several years before “she resigned from the post under threat of removal” on Nov. 13, 2009, according to the suit.
