ROANOKE TIMES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 26, 1994                   TAG: 9410260034
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER NOTE: above
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium


EMBEZZLER SENTENCED TO PRISON

Susan F. Stone was sentenced to four years in prison Tuesday for embezzling up to $5 million - mostly from the bank accounts of an 85-year-old heiress who loved her like a daughter.

In emotional testimony in federal court, Stone, 45, said she was "ashamed" and "disgraced" that she stole millions of dollars from the trust accounts of Lucy Pannill Sale from 1985 to 1993.

Stone, a former trust officer with Piedmont Trust Bank in Martinsville, said she knew in her heart that it was wrong to steal from Sale, the daughter of Pannill Knitting Co. founder William Pannill and the widow of former Sale Knitting Co. President E.A. Sale.

"I rationalized it in my mind," she said. "I wanted to be able to afford things I could not have afforded and to give my children an education ... that they would not have had."

Stone told U.S. District Judge Samuel Wilson that she had pondered suicide numerous times since her scheme was uncovered last year, but that her Christian principles didn't allow it.

"As much as I wanted to die, I knew that I didn't have the right," she said.

Stone, once a respected member of the community, testified that she has left her home as seldom as possible since the bank fired her in June 1993.

"I feel like a criminal; I'm embarrassed," she said. "I really don't want anyone to know that I am my children's mother. I feel like they have been embarrassed enough."

Stone and her husband, Harry, are nearly broke. The bank has seized more than $2 million in assets, including the family's home in the Horsepasture community of Henry County.

For eight years, though, Stone enjoyed the lavish life she coveted.

Court records show that she used Sale's money to buy six cars, a South Carolina vacation home, a trailer in Myrtle Beach, a house in Florida for her oldest daughter and numerous stocks and bonds.

Stone, who earned $42,000 a year at the bank, began managing Sale's multimillion-dollar trust accounts May 7, 1985. Five weeks later she stole the first $10,000, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennie Waering said.

Sale, a well-known benefactor, often would ask Stone to bestow anonymous gifts, making it easy for Stone to hide her stealing, according to court testimony.

In January 1993, a routine bank audit discovered huge amounts of money missing from Sale's accounts. Bank officials confronted Stone, but she tried to cover her tracks by asking Sale to sign letters saying the money was a gift.

The investigation was turned over to the FBI in May 1993; a month later, Stone signed a plea agreement admitting that she took up to $1.5 million from Sale.

Since then, she's supplied the FBI with bank records and other documentation that show the actual amount taken is roughly $5 million - making it one of the largest embezzlements ever in Virginia.

The judge, who also fined Stone $5,000, called her behavior "conniving," but stopped short of scolding her.

"I'm not going to lecture you here because I'm sure you have done more to yourself than I could do lecturing you," Wilson said.

The judge ordered Stone to report to prison by Dec. 1. There is no parole in the federal prison system.

Two other former Piedmont bank officers charged along with Stone each were sentenced to two years of probation and fined $5,000 Tuesday.

Thomas Turner, a former senior vice president with the bank, had pleaded guilty to accepting a $90,000 loan from Sale's account that he concealed from the bank. Robert H. Dunn Jr. pleaded guilty to misprision of felony, which means he had knowledge of a felony but failed to report it.

In 1989, Stone wrote a $60,000 check from Sale's account and gave it to Dunn's daughter so she could buy a house in South Carolina.

While nearly all of the money Stone stole came from Sale's account, Waering pointed out that she also took a total of $56,000 from five other customers.

Stone refused to comment as she left the courtroom, but Frank Rogers, her attorney, said he was disappointed with the length of the sentence. He had urged Wilson to place Stone on probation or to sentence her to confinement to her Ridgeway home.

"Mrs. Stone has suffered, she has sacrificed, she has been punished," Rogers told the judge.



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