The United States Attorney’s Office has filed a Notice of Successor Trustee’s Sale for five tracts of land in Howard County that allegedly were at least partially paid for with money embezzled from Exchange Bank of Missouri by an employee.

The complaint details an embezzlement scheme carried out between 2008 and October 2023 by then Exchange Bank employee Megan Lea Dougherty that alleges she stole $2,393,288.88 from customers, which was then used, at least in part, to pay loans to Exchange Bank on property, along with property taxes and property improvements. The properties were in her name, along with her then-husband, Marshall Dougherty, and his parents, Harry and Brenda Dougherty, in addition to Cain B. Cattle Company, LLC, owned by Marshall and Harry Dougherty.

Ms. Dougherty served as the bank’s Information Technology Manager at the Fayette branch.

A criminal investigation is currently underway, led by FBI Special Agent Sean McDermott. Assistant US Attorney Tony Brown filed the civil case on behalf of the federal government. He serves in the criminal division of the Springfield, Missouri, office of the Western District of Missouri, assigned to the Monetary Penalties Unit.

On May 28, Mr. Brown filed the complaint for forfeiture in rem with the Missouri Western District Court, which would grant the court authority over the properties. The complaint states that the properties are subject to forfeiture because they are involved in a transaction with proceeds traceable to bank fraud.

“At least as early as in or about 2008, and continuing to in or about October 2023, Megan Dougherty…devised a scheme and artifice to defraud her employer, Exchange Bank of Missouri, and the customers thereof, by embezzling money from EBOM customer accounts,” the complaint states.

The complaint alleges that Ms. Dougherty transferred nearly $2.4 million from customer accounts into her own accounts and used the proceeds to pay loans on the property and property taxes and construct a shop building on one property.

“Dougherty commingled embezzled funds with other sources of income in her personal bank accounts. Dougherty then used these commingled funds to purchase, improve, and pay taxes on the Defendant Property,” the complaint states.

The document details six specific dates between 2018 and 2022 when Ms. Dougherty transferred money from customer accounts “without the account holder’s authorization” into her own accounts, from which she later made the various payments. 

The complaint stated that Ms. Dougherty concealed her scheme by “mislabeling the description of the debits from the victimized accounts, and the corresponding credits deposited into her accounts, to make these fraudulent transactions appear legitimate.”

Further, it alleges that Ms. Dougherty then created fake account statements that reported the amount that should have been in the victimized accounts, which she then mailed to the victimized account holders. To cover up the theft, she then transferred money from Exchange Bank’s general ledger account into a victimized customer’s account. “At the end of the day, Dougherty would transfer money from a customer’s account into the general ledger account to reconcile the withdrawal from the general ledger account,” the complaint stated.

The details of Ms. Dougherty’s embezzlement scheme chronicled in the complaint were verified by Special Agent McDermott, who is investigating the alleged crimes.

When the scheme was finally discovered in October of last year, Ms. Dougherty was fired from Exchange Bank. Also fired was her mother-in-law, Brenda Dougherty, against whom no wrongdoing is alleged.

According to online court records, Ms. Dougherty and her husband, Marshall, separated on October 15, 2023. He then filed for divorce on October 31, which was granted in April.

On July 3, Mr. Brown filed a 90-day motion to stay with regard to the property forfeitures to allow for a potential criminal investigation to commence. The situation is developing, and the Advertiser will publish additional information as it becomes available.