United States of America v. Brooke McDonough

Phoenix, Arizona, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with embezzlement.


Reported by: Kent Morlan

Brooke McDonough, formerly known as Brooke Taylor, 35, of Mesa, Arizona, served as the branch manager of a Mesa bank, a position that afforded her broad authority over branch operations, employee assignments, and cash audits. Between June 2021 and February 2022, McDonough stole cash from the ATMs and vault inside the branch. She also manipulated monthly audits by entering inflated figures into the bank’s systems to conceal the increasing cash shortage. The scheme came to light only after McDonough resigned. The discovery of the theft triggered an internal investigation that caused three other bank employees to be placed on administrative leave.

A federal investigation revealed that McDonough deposited most of the cash she stole into her personal bank accounts. She used different ATMs at multiple bank branches breaking deposits into smaller amounts to avoid mandatory Currency Transaction Reports for deposits of over $10,000 in cash.

A jury convicted McDonough of embezzlement by a bank employee, structuring, and transactional money laundering. She was sentenced to 4 years in prison.