Missoula Man Used Fake Movie Money to Embezzle Almost $400,000

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - A Missoula man, 35-year-old Edward Nurse, admitted to embezzling just under $400,000 from the Credit Union where he worked in a supervisory role.

I spoke with Interim Montana U.S. Attorney Tim Racicot on Thursday about the case.

A Missoula Credit Union Employee Admits to Embezzlement

“Mr. Nurse worked for a credit union here in Missoula, worked for Parkside Credit Union, and he was in a supervisory position there, and over the course of almost a year, started replacing real United States currency in the credit unions vault with fake money that he ordered from an online website that could be used for movies,” began Racicot.

Racicot explained how Nurse was able to pull off the deception at the credit union.

“We were able to trace several orders that he placed for, I think, over $400,000 of fake money, and he was gradually replacing that in the Parkside Credit Union vault, and he would put a few real bills on the top and on the bottom of the stacks of money,” he said. “Eventually, a different employee at the credit union discovered the issue, and based on the investigation, we were able to trace it to Mr. Nurse, and eventually able to charge him with embezzlement from a credit union.”

Interim U.S. Attorney Tim Racicot Explained Why His Agency Investigated

Racicot explained why the U.S. Attorney’s office was the correct agency to investigate the embezzlement.

“He pled guilty to the offense that we charged,” he said. “The reason that we could charge the embezzlement is because the credit union was insured by the National Credit Union Administration, which is sort of like FDIC insurance for a bank, and so that's what enabled us to get federal jurisdiction. It also had to be more than $1,000 for it to be a federal offense, and here it was far in excess of $1,000 so we were able to charge the crime federally, and Mr. Nurse pled guilty to it pursuant to a plea agreement, and he was actually sentenced this week.”

Racicot Said the Offender Confessed to Spending Most of the Money

Racicot said Nurse had already spent most of the money he admitted to stealing.

“It looks like he spent most of the money that he took,” he said. “He is going to be ordered to pay restitution. The court ordered that as a part of the sentence. So he'll have to work with the probation office while he's on supervision, and we have an entity in our office called the Financial Litigation Unit that we'll continue to try to collect on that as well.”

Racicot said the case was investigated by the FBI, the U.S. Attorney’s Office along with assistance from the Missoula Police Department.