Former Bank Branch Manager Pleads Guilty to Embezzlement

The former branch manager of a south-central Missouri bank has admitted to embezzling about $140,000.

The U.S. attorney's office says 47-year-old Diana L. Emery pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of making a false entry in banking documents. She also admitted to one count of filing a false federal income tax return because she failed to pay taxes on the embezzled money.

Emery was employed by First Home Savings Bank for about 15 years. She started out as a bookkeeper and eventually became a branch manager in Mountain Grove.

She admitted through her plea to making unauthorized payments to herself from bank funds from 2008 to 2012. Prosecutors say Emery secretly took money from the bank vault and concealed her theft by making false entries in documents.