Former bank CFO who diverted loan proceeds among those targeted in FDIC prohibitions

A former chief financial officer of Bank of the Valley, Bellwood, Neb., is prohibited from any future work in federally insured financial institutions under a consent order issued in July and announced Friday by the federal bank deposit insurer.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., in the order, said that Aaron T. Luneke, from 2021 through his termination on May 4, 2022, knowingly executed a scheme to defraud the bank by submitting inflated and falsified invoices to the bank to support lines of credit to his related entity, Living Waters RE, LLC. It said Luneke then coerced a contractor and a subcontractor to divert a total of $305,000 of loan proceeds to himself. He was convicted of bank fraud March 6, 2026, the agency said.

The agency said it issued three other July prohibitions against the following:

• Brianna Pelosi, between June 14, 2022, and July 17, 2022, while a financial services specialist at Truist Bank in Charlotte, N.C., processed 40 counterfeit business checks and over-the-counter withdrawals ranging from $1,000 to $90,112.63 from customer accounts. “Respondent utilized her cellphone to take pictures of checks, sent those checks to other individuals, and then engaged in fraudulent transactions with individuals posing as the legitimate accountholders,” it says. The order says Pelosi received at least a portion of the stolen funds, and the bank suffered a total loss of $118,398.73.
• Kerry Trevell Hancock, while a relationship manager at the Granger, Ind., branch of Northwest Bank, Warren, Pa., on Dec. 12, 2024, forged the signature of a signatory to a customer’s account at the bank and without authorization withdrew $185,864.84 from the account. The FDIC said Hancock on Jan. 27, 2026, was adjudicated guilty on one count of embezzlement by a bank employee and ordered to pay restitution of $115,864.84.
• Courtney Mayfield Sitkowski, while a branch services manager/financial center manager of Independent Bank, McKinney, Texas, between 2020 and 2022 misappropriated funds from various customer accounts at the bank, including conducting unauthorized transfers of funds between customer accounts and issuing unauthorized cashier’s checks for Respondent’s own benefit from customer accounts.

The agency said it also terminated a consent cease-and-desist order from April 2024 against Spring Valley Bank, Wyoming, Ohio.

FDIC Publishes July Enforcement Actions