Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 27, 1990 TAG: 9007270708
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY BUSINESS EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Bristol-based thrift sued Cheryl Benson Perry of Roanoke for the $2 million it claims she took plus $207,339 she was paid in salary in the approximately eight years of the alleged embezzlement.
The suit was filed in Roanoke Circuit Court. No criminal charges have been lodged.
Perry, who lives on Showalter Road Northwest, could not be reached Thursday to comment.
Perry began working for a Charter predecessor, the former Peoples Federal Savings and Loan Association, in February 1967. She was fired May 30, about 1 1/2 years after she was appointed a vice president, according to the suit.
The suit said she used the embezzled money to buy real estate and personal items. The money was placed in her individual account or a joint account with her husband, Noah Perry, or in the names of other persons, the lawsuit said.
Charter also may sue its bonding company "if they persist in denying coverage" for the loss, said Douglas Densmore, the bank's attorney. He said an investigation of the embezzlement is continuing.
E.L. Byington, Charter chairman, had said earlier that the bank changed bonding companies within the past year and both the previous and the current bonding firms have declined to cover the loss.
The denial of bonding coverage "will be vigorously resisted," he said, and Charter "will pursue every reasonable avenue to minimize its losses as a result of this embezzlement."
Byington said depositors' funds are secure and all account discrepancies will be fully investigated.
The bank said the embezzled money was diverted from a small number of accounts, mainly certificates of deposit. All of the money taken was from Charter's Jefferson Street branch, the bank said.
by CNB