Department of Justice

U.S. Attorney’s Office

Northern District of Illinois

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Polo Woman Pleads Guilty to Bank Embezzlement

ROCKFORD — A Polo, Ill. woman pleaded guilty today in federal court before U.S. District Judge Frederick J. Kapala to embezzling $59,560.88 from First State Bank Shannon-Polo. 

KAYLA C. BERGSTROM, 46, of Polo, was First Vice-President of First State Bank, with branches located in Polo and Shannon, Ill. 

According to the plea agreement, Bergstrom had the highest security level assigned in the bank’s software program, which controlled all customer bank accounts, the bank’s general ledger accounts, adding new accounts, and the maintenance of all bank accounts.  Bergstrom’s responsibilities included reconciling all of the bank’s correspondent accounts including the bank’s correspondent account with US Bank.  Bergstrom stated in the plea agreement that between Feb. 23, 2010 and Feb. 3, 2014, she embezzled a total of $59,560.88 from First State Bank by creating 34 separate cash advance tickets for the bank’s correspondent account at US Bank and crediting the amounts of cash advance tickets to her personal account and the business account for her husband’s automobile repair business.  Bergstrom admitted in her plea agreement that she concealed her embezzlement by changing the balances on the bank’s US Bank account statements by manually cutting and pasting false account balances on the statements.  The deposits of the bank were insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

Bergstrom faces a maximum sentence of 30 years’ imprisonment, a term of supervised release of up to five years following imprisonment, and a fine of up to $1 million.  Sentencing for Bergstrom is set for June 28, 2016, at 9:00 a.m. before U.S. District Judge Philip G. Reinhard. 

The guilty plea was announced by Zachary T. Fardon, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Michael J. Anderson, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of Federal Bureau of Investigation; and Joseph Moriarty, Special Agent in Charge for the Chicago Regional Office, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation - Office of Inspector General.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph C. Pedersen.

Plea Agreement