NEW ORLEANS — Alexa Marie Braud, a former credit union manager who was arrested in Florida after a traffic stop by police led to the discovery of a cooler filled with more than $150,000 in cash, has been indicted on a theft charge.
As the CU Daily reported earlier, according to police in Jefferson Parish, La., 34-year-old Alexa Marie Braud of Gretna, La. was booked into the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center on a theft charge after what investigators describe as a cross-jurisdictional probe that followed her car more than 250 miles to the Florida Panhandle, NOLA.com reported.
She has now been indicted for allegedly stealing $181,000 from Riverland FCU, where she worked as a manager, according to the Department of Justice’s U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana reported.
If convicted, Braud faces up to 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, restitution, up to three years of supervised release and a $100 mandatory special assessment fee, prosecutors said.
As the CU Daily also reported earlier, the investigation kicked off when employees of RiverLand Credit Union discovered money missing from a vault and called police, NOLA.com reported.
Walton County deputies pulled over a red Toyota Corolla at the intersection of Florida Highway 285 and U.S. 90 near Mossy Head, where the cash was discovered, NOLA.com said. Gretna police had already issued an alert tying that vehicle to the RiverLand branch after employees reported the missing funds, investigators told the outlet, the report stated.
What Surveillance Video Showed
According to the Gretna Police Department, surveillance video from RiverLand FCU shows a woman they identified as Braud going into the vault, stuffing cash into a bag and then leaving the branch, NOLA.com said.
“When other employees arrived later, they reported that money was missing from the vault and told officers that cash had also been removed from a teller drawer,” NOLA.com added, citing statements from authorities.
