Former Employee at University of Maryland, Baltimore Sentenced for Theft of More Than $469,000

BALTIMORE, MD (June 3, 2009) - Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler announced today that Cheryl Denise Green of Owings Mills, was sentenced by the Honorable David W. Young to five years in jail with all but one year suspended for the theft of $469,851 from the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Judge Young also ordered Green to five years of supervised probation upon release from jail; to pay restitution in the amount of $332,115; to undergo a psychiatric evaluation and submit to any treatment deemed necessary; and to not seek employment with the State of Maryland

The investigation revealed that while employed as a division manager from December 2005 through January 2008, Green was entrusted with a UMB Visa card for the express purposes of making payments to vendors, for grant allocations, and for UMB office supply purchases. On October 30, 2007, she was informed that her position would be eliminated due to department reorganization, and her last day was to be January 30, 2008. On January 27, 2008, Green deposited into her personal bank account a check in the amount of $137,736.33, made payable to UMB. The next day, the University was notified by Provident Bank’s Security Division that Green had deposited the check into her personal bank account. Provident cancelled the transaction and forwarded the stolen check and bank surveillance photographs to UMB police.

After an extensive internal audit by UMB, it was discovered that Green also used the UMB credit card to make unauthorized personal purchases and payments totaling $332,115. The State determined that during the defendant’s employment with UMB, she processed a total of 620 credit card transactions. More than 200 of those transactions were definitely fraudulent and unrelated to any reasonable business expense of UMB.

Green, a law school graduate, elected to proceed without counsel and pleaded guilty to felony theft on February 27, 2009. The case was investigated by the Criminal Division of the Office of the Attorney General, the University System of Maryland Internal Audit Office, and the Maryland State Police. In making today’s announcement, Attorney General Gansler thanked Assistant Attorney General Kate O’Donnell for her work on the case.