This can make an episode in a TV police procedural show.
A credit union employee who primarily manages and balances the cash in the vault has pled guilty to stealing real money from his workplace in Missoula. The plot involves replacing the bills with fake currency used in film production so no one else would notice.
He could be called “Ocean’s 1.” Edward Arthur Nurse worked in the Park Side Credit Union and used his particular workspace to embezzle nearly $400,000 in cash. The subtle robbery utilized “prop” money he ordered and had delivered to his post office box. From there it was a simple matter to swap out the actual bills for the counterfeit at any opportunity alone. He did this for a year, from July 2023 into June 2024.
So what did he do with the Loot?
According to the U.S. Attorney’s office for Montana, our Ethan Hunt wannabe made cash deposits into his bank account for over $10,000 at a time, for a total over $117,000. This alone may have drawn suspicion. This next move is confusing in the press release between March and May of this year, according to casino financial records, “Nurse put more than $56,000 in cash into the business and cashed out slightly more than $8,000.” Money laundering investor, or just blew $48,000 on the machines?
The Gig is up
When Park Side CU discovered the con, Nurse became the prime suspect. An FBI investigation found the movie money orders over six months totaling $410,000. Further evidence came from the Federal Reserve, who returned around $50,000 in fake money to the credit union…