U.S. v. Marquardt, 85-1318

• Decision Date: 28 February 1986
• Docket Number: No. 85-1318,85-1318
• Citation: 786 F.2d 771
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Debbe MARQUARDT, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 771

786 F.2d 771

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Debbe MARQUARDT, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 85-1318.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued Sept. 12, 1985.

Decided Feb. 28, 1986.

Robert G. LeBell, Milwaukee, Wis., for defendant-appellant.

R. Jeffrey Wagner, Asst. U.S. Atty., Joseph P. Stadtmueller, U.S. Atty., Milwaukee, Wis., for plaintiff-appellee.

Before COFFEY, EASTERBROOK and RIPPLE, Circuit Judges.

COFFEY, Circuit Judge.

The defendant-appellant, Debbe Marquardt, was convicted of willfully misapplying the funds, moneys and credits of a federally insured savings and loan institution in violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 657 ¹ and of knowingly and willfully making false entries into a book, report or statement of a federally insured savings and loan institution with intent to defraud the institution and deceive its officers, examiners and auditors in violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1006. ² Marquardt appeals her convictions, her sentence of seven concurrent three-year terms of imprisonment, and the court's denial of her motion for release on bond pending appeal. We affirm.

I.

A federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Wisconsin returned a seven count indictment against Debbe Marquardt. Count 1 of the indictment charged that on July 14, 1981, Marquardt "did willfully misapply [a First Savings check] payable to First Savings of Wisconsin in the amount of $2,564.71 by using a portion of the proceeds of said check to repay savings account loans on ... an account used for her personal use and the use of others" in violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 657. Count 2 charged that on February 20, 1982 Marquardt willfully misapplied $560.25 "by falsely disbursing said funds from First Savings' [bonds redeemed account] and subsequently crediting a portion of said funds to First Savings [vault cash account] and then receiving said funds in cash for her own use or the use of others" in violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 657. Count 3 charged that on April 17, 1982, Marquardt "did post a false entry of $2,500 to First Savings [vault cash account], with intent to defraud said institution and to deceive the officers, examiners and auditors of said institution," in violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1006. Count 4 charged that on April 19, 1982, Marquardt posted an unauthorized withdrawal of $2,656.83 to the account of one Beatrice Hermann with the intent to defraud First Savings and deceive its officers in violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1006. Count 5 charged that on December 29, 1982, Marquardt posted a false ledger entry of a $3,093.93 disbursement to First Savings' bonds redeemed account with the intent to defraud the institution and deceive its officers in violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1006. Count 6 charged that on March 7, 1983, Marquardt willfully misapplied $500.00 in Federal Reserve Bond payments by crediting $500.00 to First Savings' vault cash account and subsequently receiving the funds in cash for her own use in violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 657. Count 7 charged that on August 2, 1983, Marquardt posted a false entry of $6,200 as a savings account loan debited against the account of one Irene Johnson with the intent to defraud First Savings and deceive its officers in violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1006. Marquardt entered a plea of not guilty and was tried before a jury on the charges contained in the indictment.

The testimony and evidence introduced at Marquardt's trial revealed that in February 1981, Marquardt became the head teller at the Grafton, Wisconsin branch of First Savings Association of Wisconsin ("First Savings"). As head teller, Marquardt supervised the other tellers and was also responsible for handling First Savings' "Bonds Redeemed" account. ³ While an employee of First Savings, but prior to becoming the head teller at the Grafton branch, Marquardt obtained two loans on her mother's savings account at First Savings with her mother's consent. ⁴ In July 1981, Jim Mews, the manager of the Grafton branch of First Savings, informed Marquardt that interest payments on her savings account loans were overdue as the total outstanding balance of the principal and interest on the loans guaranteed by her mother's account exceeded ninety percent of the amount of her mother's certificate of deposit in violation of the First Savings loan policy. Shortly thereafter, on July 13, 1981, Marquardt prepared a First Savings check in the amount of $2,564.71 drawn on the institution's "bonds redeemed" account ⁵ without the consent of the savings and loan's authorities. A check drawn on the "bonds redeemed" account would normally be payable to the customer who redeemed the bonds, but the check dated July 13 drawn on the bonds redeemed account was suspect in that it was payable to First Savings rather than to a customer. Furthermore, the evidence established that in fact no bonds had been redeemed on that date. On the same day that Marquardt prepared the check, she transported the same to the Northridge branch of First Savings and misappropriated the funds in that she made a $2,034.69 payment on interest and principal on her two savings account loans secured by her mother's account, deposited $400.00 in her personal savings account, and received $130.02 in cash. These transactions were accomplished without the knowledge or consent of First Savings' authorities.

The evidence and testimony at trial revealed numerous false accounting entries and additional acts of misappropriation of First Savings' funds following Marquardt's initial misappropriation of the $2,564.71 check. Shortly after securing the funds by misapplication of the check, Marquardt prepared a fraudulent "transmittal letter" ⁶ reciting that $2,564.71 in savings bonds had been redeemed in July of 1981 and sent to the Federal Reserve Bank for reimbursement. An employee of the Federal Reserve Bank testified that the Federal Reserve Bank had no record of having received a transmittal letter from First Savings for redeemed bonds in the amount of $2,564.71, and an audit of First Savings' records ⁷ revealed that the institution had not received a check in the amount of $2,564.71 from the Federal Reserve Bank as payment for the bonds in question.

Several months later, on February 20, 1982, Marquardt removed $500.00 from the vault cash account and thereafter prepared a ledger entry reciting that she paid out $560.25 in cash to a customer (fictitious person) who allegedly redeemed savings bonds in that amount on that date, but instead Marquardt misapplied the $560.25 to her own use. The auditor's review of First Savings' records failed to uncover any document or record evidencing the redemption of bonds in that amount on that date or that a transmittal letter was either prepared or sent to the Federal Reserve Bank for reimbursement on the bonds in the amount of $560.25. Further checking revealed that First Savings had not received a $560.25 reimbursement for the allegedly redeemed bonds from the Federal Reserve Bank.

The auditor's review further disclosed that two months later, on April 17, 1982, Marquardt prepared another fictitious ledger entry to conceal her initial misappropriation of a First Savings check on July 13, 1981 reflecting the receipt of $2,563.61 from the Federal Reserve Bank for the bonds allegedly redeemed on that date. According to the auditor, First Savings' records failed to disclose receipt of a check from the Federal Reserve Bank in that amount on that date or at any other time. The evidence also established that shortly thereafter on the same day, Marquardt prepared a false ledger entry reciting that she transferred $2,500 from her cash drawer to the vault cash account. The transfer of $2,500, which was in fact applied to the bonds redeemed account, together with the false ledger entry reciting the receipt of $2,563.61 from the Federal Reserve Bank balanced the bonds redeemed account and temporarily concealed her misapplication of the $2,564.71 check on July 13, 1981, but left the vault cash account $2,500 short.

Two days later on April 19, 1982, Marquardt closed out the savings account of an ailing customer named Beatrice Hermann and transferred the money in her account ($2,656.83) to the vault cash account without the knowledge or consent of either Hermann or First Savings. Marquardt marked the withdrawal slip "deceased"--"per legal file," reflecting that probate papers concerning the allegedly deceased account holder were on file at First Savings. Beatrice Hermann was not deceased as of April 19, and thus Hermann's First Savings' file did not and could not properly reflect any probate proceedings. With the closing out of the Hermann account and the transfer of its funds to the vault cash account, Marquardt balanced the vault cash account and her cash drawer (which had been $2,500 short following Marquardt's false entry on April 17), thus concealing her April 17 false ledger entry.

Several months later, in November 1982, Beatrice Hermann died, and on December 29 her personal representative (her brother) attempted to close out her account at First Savings. At this time, Marquardt reopened the account, redeposited $2,656.83 in the account, manually credited the account with the interest due from April to December 1982, and paid out the total amount to Hermann's brother. In an attempt to cover-up the $2,656.83 shortage resulting from the redeposit to the Hermann account, Marquardt posted a ledger entry to the bond's redeemed account showing that a customer had cashed $3,093.93 worth of savings bonds on that date. This entry of $3,093.93 also proved to be fraudulent as the First Savings audit revealed no record of a transmittal letter prepared or sent to the Federal Reserve Bank for bonds in that amount nor did the audit reveal any record of the receipt of payment from the Federal Reserve Bank for bonds in that amount.

On March 7, 1983, First Savings received three checks from the Federal Reserve Bank totaling $7,996.69 as...