In June 2024, an employee at Park Side Credit Union in Missoula, Montana, made an unusual discovery: $340,000 of cash in the vault was nothing but movie magic.
As investigators eventually revealed, one of the employee’s co-workers had been sneaking cash out of the vault for almost a year, pocketing about $389,000 and replacing it with prop money.
Last week, 35-year-old Edward Arthur Nurse learned his punishment for the bizarre scheme. The former
Nurse pleaded guilty to embezzlement last fall. From July 2023 to June 2024, Nurse admitted, he exploited his position as team leader for the vault to steal cash, replacing it with fake bills he bought from a company that makes props for movies.
He then used the real cash, his lawyer said, to finance his gambling habit.
“[Nurse] struggles with a gambling addiction, as well as depression and anxiety,” his appointed attorney, Shandor Badaruddin, wrote in a sentencing memorandum. “His family loved and cared about him, but they were naïve to his addiction, and not able to help him.”
As Nurse fed his addiction with stolen cash, prosecutors say he covered his tracks carefully. Every time he planted the prop money in the vault, he wrapped each bundle with real bills on the top and bottom. To keep the ruse going, he purchased more movie money several times over a seven-month period.
After Park Side began to catch on, FBI agents interviewed Nurse. He told them he didn’t often carry much cash or make large purchases or deposits — apart from a recent trip to Las Vegas.
In reality, prosecutors said, Nurse had made at least nine cash deposits into his bank account over the course of 2024, putting in more than $10,000 each time.
In July 2024, the Federal Reserve received about $50,000 in cash from the credit union — all of it fake. Among the harms of Nurse’s crime, prosecutors said, was the damage to Park Side’s business.
“This was not a victimless crime,” said U.S. attorneys Jesse Laslovich and Michael Kakuk in their sentencing memo. “Aside from the monetary cost to the insurance company and the credit union having to cover its deductible, the intangible costs here are significant. Nurse’s actions harmed the credit union’s reputation, both professional and with its customers.”
Park Side is a state-chartered credit union with 30,227 members and $377.3 million of assets. It has 10 branches in Montana, including three in Missoula.
This is not the first time prop money has found its way into a bank or credit union’s coffers. Last September, 14 customers of Independence Bank of Kentucky
Over the first six months of 2024, prosecutors said, Nurse purchased $410,000 in fake currency. Court documents did not reveal how much he spent on the props, but a stack of 100 fake $100 bills on Amazon costs $8.99. To buy the amount Nurse purchased would have cost about $369.
Prosecutors noted that Nurse is the primary caregiver for his children, including two who are too young to attend school. This deterred them from recommending a lengthy prison sentence, they said.
“It is unlikely his spouse would be able to afford daycare for those children, which weighs against incarceration,” Laslovich and Kakuk wrote. “Balancing this information with Nurse’s conduct, however, shows that it is still unlikely that probation alone would be sufficient punishment for this offense.”
As one of the conditions of Nurse’s supervised release, he must receive treatment for his gambling addiction.
“Providing such treatment is the surest way to assist Nurse and minimize the risk of
future criminal conduct,” Laslovich and Kakuk wrote.
Park Side did not immediately respond to American Banker’s request for comment, nor did Badaruddin or acting U.S. Attorney Timothy Racicot.