ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, September 14, 1996 TAG: 9609160028
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
A former senior vice president of the National Bank of Blacksburg was sentenced Friday for stealing money from the bank.
Harold Chafin admitted issuing two cashier's checks worth $61,000 without paying for them. He pleaded guilty in May to two counts of misapplication of bank funds.
He was sentenced to 12 months and a day in prison and fined $5,000. By making his sentence longer than a year, U.S. District Judge James Turk made Chafin eligible for "good time credit," which could reduce his sentence by as much as 54 days. He will be on probation for three years after his release.
Although he pleaded guilty, Chafin has said he did not gain personally from the transactions and that he did it to help friends. He was manager of the bank's Pearisburg branch until 1994.
The government says he was trying to repay money he had borrowed from a friend. Chafin had another bank employee issue three cashier's checks totaling more than $75,000, but he did not pay for them, according to his indictment. Months later, after being confronted, he paid the bank back.
He was indicted on three counts of misapplication of bank funds and pleaded guilty to two counts. The third count, involving a check for $15,100, was dropped.
According to the indictment, a friend gave Chafin $30,000 to invest for him in 1992 and lent him another $15,000 in 1994. The friend, Thomas L. Brotherton, then began pressuring Chafin to return the money plus any earnings from it.
Chafin wrote Brotherton two personal checks in October 1994 totaling $51,492, but the checks bounced, the indictment says. He had a cashier's check issued to Brotherton for that amount two weeks later.
He had another cashier's check issued to Brotherton that month for $9,978. Six months earlier, he had taken $9,600 out of Brotherton's bank account without Brotherton's knowledge, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Eckert told the judge.
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