Linda Speaks Tribby, a former Wachovia Bank manager in Purcellville who pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $14 million, was sentenced to seven years in prison

Linda Speaks Tribby, a former Wachovia Bank manager in Purcellville who pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $14 million, was sentenced to seven years in prison Friday.
Tribby, 42, admitted in March to stealing $14.1 million from bank clients over the course of seven years by persuading them to invest in bogus wealth management accounts. She pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud in federal court in Alexandria.
Tribby was accused of using the money to buy land in New York and Nevada, a house in West Virginia, several automobiles and a helicopter.
She was also ordered Friday to make full restitution to victims and to forfeit bank accounts and property.
“Linda Tribby’s stunning greed and extravagant life style drove her to steal more than $14 million,” said U.S. Attorney MacBride. “For more than seven years, she betrayed the trust of the bank’s customers and stole their money to buy a Bell helicopter, a lake house, a hunting cabin, a luxury motor home, cars, real estate and a menagerie of exotic animals. Ms. Tribby will now spend the next seven years in federal prison for her crimes which devastated the lives of the victims.”
Tribby, admitted that as a business relationship manager between December 2003 and January 2011, she offered bank customers accounts she claimed would earn interest tax-free, even though the bank offered no such accounts. She then transferred money from those accounts to accounts controlled by her and hid her scheme by fabricating computer generated statements sent periodically to clients, prosecutors alleged.
Wells Fargo & Co., which acquired Wachovia in 2008, uncovered the fraud through an internal investigation.
Tribby was arrested Jan. 23 at Dulles International Airport.