SAVANNAH, GA: A former employee of a Savannah finance company was sentenced to federal prison for committing bank fraud.
Dean Emerson Flake, 58, of Brooklet, Ga., was sentenced to 20 months in federal prison followed by 13 months of home confinement by U.S. District Court Judge William T. Moore after pleading guilty to one count of Bank Fraud, said Bobby L. Christine, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia. After completion of his prison term, Flake will be required to serve three years of supervised release.
“Stealing from your own long-time employer displays callous disregard for those who have placed employees in positions of trust,” said U.S. Attorney Christine. “Dean Flake squandered his opportunity to earn an honest living when he bit the hand that generously fed him, and thus will now dine in a prison cafeteria.”
According to court documents and testimony, Flake was employed for nearly 35 years as an Accounts Payable Processor at a finance company in Chatham County. In 2019, he began forging signatures on checks drawn on the company’s checking account and depositing them in his own account.
By the time his scheme was detected, Flake had stolen more than $1.6 million from his employer. The government identified, seized and forfeited $975,138.79 from the scheme, and after his arrest Flake admitted to stealing the money to feed a gambling addiction.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Secret Service, and prosecuted for the United States by Assistant U.S. Attorney Xavier A. Cunningham, Section Chief of the Asset Recovery Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
