Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 8, 1991 TAG: 9102080765
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Her 74-year-old mother lies in a Roanoke hospital, recovering from heart surgery to repair an ailment that Klester says worsened when more than $156,000 turned up missing from her parents' accounts at Charter Federal Savings Bank.
Klester's suspicion about the missing money was confirmed Thursday - that the money was a small portion of the $2.5 million Perry admits to embezzling from Charter Federal.
"My mother's been very worried. I'm surprised there weren't some other people who didn't have heart attacks," Klester said.
Perry pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court on Thursday to charges of embezzling money from Charter Federal. Under a plea agreement, two other charges - making false entries and laundering money - were dismissed.
The former vice president in Charter Federal's downtown Roanoke office was indicted in October. The indictment said that from 1981 to May 1990, she made unauthorized withdrawals from the accounts of 47 customers and transferred the money into 20 single and jointly held accounts in her name and in the names of relatives and friends.
The indictment listed the accounts of the customers, most of them elderly, from which Perry withdrew money.
Klester's father was a loyal customer. Perry fostered a friendly relationship with him, Klester said, spending time with him during bank visits and sending him gifts.
Soon after her father's death in 1988, Klester's mother began receiving odd phone calls from someone who represented himself as a Charter Federal employee. The caller, a man, told Klester's mother that her accounts were overdrawn by as much as $8,000.
"The phone calls upset my mother," Klester said. "My mother was confused, but I smelled something wrong. She started taking heart pills, she was so worried someone was trying to get information from her. It was as if someone was trying to find out how much attention she was paying to her account balances."
Perry's attorney, Jonathan Rogers, said Thursday that he intends to ask that she not receive any prison time but be placed on probation. She could receive a maximum 20 years in prison, $1 million fine or both.
"I hope she does time," Klester said. "She's caused a lot of pain to my mom and to others."
Authorities maintain that Perry, 46, is responsible for Virginia's largest bank embezzlement since 1956.
"I hope she gets 99 years," said Charlie Paxton. Perry took $64,000 from Paxton's savings account.
Hartie Price sounded surprised, but pleasantly so, when told of Perry's guilty plea. "I haven't had time to have any feeling at all," Price said. "But she's somebody who still needs to be in prison."
Perry's scheme baffled customers. And it has forced Charter Federal to file suit against its insurer to collect the money Perry bilked from the thrift and gave to charities, to street people, to her church and to friends.
Perry's guilty plea "certainly supports our claim," said Thomas Leggette, a Roanoke attorney representing the bank.
"We are pleased that Cheryl Perry's guilty plea has made the truth known," said E.L. Byington Jr., Charter Federal's chief executive officer.
"We only wish that it had come earlier," Byington said in a written statement. "That would have spared us the additional burden of time and expense required to reconstruct the crime. It also would have permitted us to move more quickly to make our customers whole."
Court testimony Thursday indicated that Charter Federal spent $7,100 to research Perry's activities.
by CNB