Ex-loan officer gets 18 month term after pleading guilty to embezzlement

DAILY MAIL STAFF

Lillian Cook was surrounded by money every day at her job as thechief loan officer at a Nicholas County bank. In March 1998, thetemptation became too much.

Cook began faking loan documents to write and cash checks herselfon the way to embezzling $195,943 from a United National bank branchover the next 10 months.

Then she got caught.

Cook, 54, was sentenced today in Charleston federal court to 18months in federal prison for bank embezzlement, a charge she pleadedguilty to in August.

But in handing down the sentence, U.S. District Judge JohnCopenhaver appeared sympathetic toward the slight, blonde womandressed in a conservative …