Bad IBERIABANK

Iberiabank associate who stole thousands sentenced
The first of two local women who embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars from IberiaBank was sentenced to one year in jail on April 22, 2009 despite her tearful appeal to remain free.Shannon Freyou, 37, who pleaded guilty in January to stealing more than $100,000 during her tenure at the bank, received a five-year sentence — four years were suspended —on charges of bank fraud. Freyou avoided the maximum sentence of 10 years but will berequired to serve one year of home incarceration as well as three years probation upon her release. Freyou also paid IberiaBank about $73,000 in court Wednesday, her final restitution payment she made by borrowing from family members, many of whom attended the sentencing. Jail time was appropriate, state District Judge Lori A. Landry ruled, because Freyou took so much money over seven years and never admitted it until she was implicated by Brandi Peltier, a co-worker who pleaded guilty thismonth to embezzling more than $460,000 from the bank.
“Responsibility goes beyond remorse,” Landry said in lecturing Freyou. “It happened over and over and over again.” Landry also denied Freyou’s request she be allowed some time to explain the sentence to her three children, the younger two of whom she said were completely unaware of the situation. “We were going to tell them last night, but I didn’t want them today to know where I was,” Freyou said during her testimony, “and to have them sit in school all day and worry, ‘Is Mama going to be home?’ ’’
An IberiaBank representative urged Landry to impose a “harsh” sentence including jail time, testifying that Freyou abused the trust of her colleagues and necessitated an elaborate investigation. “Any sentence less than that, in our opinion, would be a mere slap on the wrist and would communicate the wrong message to our employees and others involved in white-collar crime,” said Charles A. Montelaro, the director of security for IberiaBank. The sentencing closed the next to last chapter of a case that began in September 2007 when Peltier wrote a letter of confession to the president of IberiaBank. Undetected, both women used several fraudulent accounts to increase credit limits and make cash advances, at times transferring funds from other customers’ closed accounts, court documents show.
Peltier, 29, is to be sentenced June 3. But it remained unclear what Freyou’s jail sentence might mean for Peltier. Landry, who also is scheduled to sentence Peltier, sent mixed signals Thursday as to how she might rule in that case. While Freyou stole a much smaller amount, Landry suggested she was responsible for Peltier’s actions in the end because she was her supervisor and said nothing even after noticing how much Peltier was taking. At the same time, Landry, said her decision to impose jail time reflects her stance on this type of crime. “We continue to have white-collar crime because there are no consequences,” Landry said.
Posted: Thursday, April 23, 2009 12:00 BY JIM MUSTIAN THE DAILY IBERIAN