Former Little Rock Banker Indicted on Bank Fraud and Money Laundering Charges

LITTLE ROCK—Christopher R. Thyer, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, announced that Kelly Harbert, age 45, of Little Rock, Arkansas, was indicted today by a federal grand jury. The twenty-two count indictment, charges Harbert with seventeen counts of bank fraud, two counts of money laundering, and one count of aggravated identity theft.

According to the indictment, Harbert worked for One Bank and Trust, N.A. (One Bank) as a Vice President and Commercial Loan Officer and then later as a Senior Vice President. The indictment charges that Harbert devised a scheme to defraud various financial institutions by obtaining funds under false pretenses and then converted the proceeds from these fraudulent loans and lines of credit totaling over $550,000 to her own personal use.

As a loan officer Harbert had authority to approve unsecured loans in amounts up to $50,000. The indictment charges that Harbert, using her position at One Bank, approved various types of unsecured loans and lines of credit in the names of one parent or the other, without their knowledge or authorization.

The indictment also states that Harbert used her business relationships with other financial institutions in the Little Rock, Arkansas area to arrange for various types of unsecured loans and lines of credits at these banks in the names of one parent or the other and in the names of some of Harbert’s bank clients, using their personal identifiers all without their knowledge or authorization.

The money laundering counts stem from Harbert’s conversion of the bank proceeds by depositing and transferring amounts in excess of $10,000 from one account to another. Lastly, Harbert is charged with aggravated identity theft for knowingly using, without lawful authority, the identification of another person.

The maximum statutory penalty for bank fraud is not more than 30 years’ imprisonment and up to a $1,000,000 fine or both with five years’ supervised release. The maximum statutory penalty for money laundering is up to10 years’ imprisonment and a fine of $250,000 with three years’ supervised release. The aggravated identity theft charge adds a mandatory minimum prison sentence of two years to any sentence received, a fine of not more than $250,000 or both and one year of supervised release.

This investigation was conducted by agents from the Little Rock Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General, and Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Angela S. Jegley.

An indictment contains only allegations. The defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.