Ex-Bank Manager Pleads Guilty to Stealing $335K From Customers

Reagan France, a former Northern Kentucky bank manager and Bromley council member, pleaded guilty to federal charges for a $335,000 embezzlement scheme.

Reagan France, 36, the former branch manager of Home Savings Bank in Ludlow, Kentucky, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Covington on Sept. 10 to bank fraud, theft by a bank employee, and aggravated identity theft. According to a plea agreement filed Sept. 9 in the Eastern District of Kentucky, she embezzled approximately $335,182 from more than 20 customer accounts between 2022 and 2024, plus tens of thousands of dollars from two Ludlow nonprofits where she volunteered. Prosecutors agreed to seek dismissal of the 19 remaining counts from a March indictment at sentencing.

France's fall is striking because of her community standing: WCPO notes she famously won a seat on the Bromley City Council by a single vote in 2020 and was sworn in on Christmas Eve that year. She rose from part-time teller in 2015 to branch manager in 2023, then resigned at the end of 2024. The betrayal of a trusted position — the bank's president said maintaining customer trust was its highest priority — and theft from nonprofits she volunteered for make the case especially jarring.

A forensic examination found France moved money in several ways: transferring customer funds into accounts she or family members controlled, withdrawing cash with forged withdrawal slips to make thefts look legitimate, and using other employees' credentials — over 100 unauthorized transactions, per WCPO. Investigators attributed $107,893 to transfers and $109,821 to cash withdrawals, per WKRC. Her own checking account was allowed to run a deficit of more than $40,000, and the scheme unraveled in August 2024 when the bank president noticed her teller drawer didn't match recorded transactions.

France faces up to 30 years in prison for bank fraud and theft, plus a mandatory two-year consecutive term for aggravated identity theft, according to court reporting. She has agreed to pay at least $250,000 in restitution, offset by the $173,712.81 already recovered, and to a forfeiture judgment of $76,287.19. Home Savings Bank says affected customers have been reimbursed, but the case underscores how insider access — account numbers, teller IDs, and escrow funds — can defeat ordinary customer vigilance.

France has not yet been sentenced; her hearing is set for Jan. 13, 2027, before U.S. District Judge Chad Meredith. Prosecutors will move to dismiss the remaining counts at that time. Kentucky's Attorney General Coleman praised investigators' work, saying accountability is necessary when a bank employee paid to protect customers' money steals from them instead. The story remains a live search trend, suggesting continued public interest in the sentencing and restitution outcome.