Former bank official sentenced to five years for embezzlement

A former high-ranking official with the Ellington, Mo., branch of the People's Community State Bank was sentenced Monday to nearly five years in federal prison and ordered to pay more than $1 million in restitution on bank fraud and embezzlement charges.

Irvin R. Eddington Jr., 42, of Ellington was sentenced to 57 months imprisonment by U.S. District Judge Carol E. Jackson in Cape Girardeau, according to a clerk with the U.S. District Court.

The 57-month sentence was on each count, and the sentences were ordered to run concurrently, a spokesman with the federal prosecutor's office said.

Upon his release from prison, the clerk said Eddington will be placed on a five-year term of supervised released.

Jackson also ordered Eddington to pay restitution of $1,195,696.63, the clerk said.

Eddington earlier pleaded guilty as charged to one felony count of bank fraud and one felony count of embezzlement by a bank employee.

The charges stemmed from Eddington's issuance of fraudulent letters of credit while he was vice president and manager of the Ellington branch of People's Community State Bank [PCSB].

With the plea, Eddington admitted to schemes to issue money orders to bank loan customers and forging the customers' names, creating fraudulent letters of credit worth more than $1.3 million, taking money from a loan without reporting it per Federal Reserve regulations and helping an "associate" secure a loan using a fraudulent title insurance policy as part of the application.

Pertinent address:

Ellington, MO