Ex-bank employee pleads guilty |
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Fri, 08 Jun 2007 01:59
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PITTSBURGH (AP) - A former Mellon Bank employee admitted her role in destroying thousands of federal tax returns, pleading guilty Thursday to one count of theft of government property.Denise Philpott, 52, of Shaler Township, was a bank supervisor in April 2001 when Mellon had a contract with the Internal Revenue Service to process income tax returns and tax-payment checks.Mellon employees, feeling overwhelmed and unable to meet contract-imposed deadlines, destroyed 77,000 returns and checks totaling $1.3 billion at a company service center in Pittsburgh, federal prosecutors said. Missing the deadlines would have meant fines and penalties for the bank.Philpott conveyed the directive to destroy the documents, prosecutors said. She is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 5.Her boss, Lynn Kling, 59, of West Virginia, is scheduled to be sentenced in September after pleading guilty last month to making false statements to government agents.A former bank manager also is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty last year. A total of eight bank employees, all of whom were later fired, were indicted.In August, the bank reached a settlement with the government under which it would not be prosecuted and would cooperate with authorities.Mellon, a subsidiary of Mellon Financial Corp., has paid $18.1 million in restitution to cover interest the government would have received from the destroyed checks, as well as the costs of moving the IRS processing center to another company's facility in King of Prussia, prosecutors said.George A. Stamboulidis, a former federal prosecutor, was picked last month to monitor the settlement.Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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