Ex-banker gets 8 years for embezzling nearly $3M
A former banker has been sentenced to more than eight years in prison, months after pleading guilty to charges of tax fraud and embezzling nearly $3 million from her employer.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Portland announced the sentencing of Lynn M. Bowden, 63, of Bucksport on Tuesday. She also was ordered to pay $3.8 million in restitution. Bowden pleaded guilty to the charges in February.
Bowden’s embezzlement was discovered in October 2012, when she was working as a wealth management officer for People’s United Bank, “managing over 200 trust and and investment management accounts,” the announcement said. Bowden began working in May 2004 for Bangor-based Merrill Merchants Bank, which eventually came under ownership of People’s United Bank in 2008 through two acquisitions.
An investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service’s criminal investigations division had found that Bowden embezzled nearly $3 million by transferring funds from her clients’ accounts into her own from April 2005 to September 2012. Bowden reportedly used the money for herself and her family. Because she didn’t report the income, she failed to pay the IRS more than $750,000 in taxes.
People’s United Bank fired Bowden on October 26, 2012, after learning of the misuse of funds, and ultimately reimbursed all of Bowden’s clients.
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