ENLOE STATE BANK: FIRE AND FRAUD

Abstract

On Friday, June 5, 2020, Anita Moody, the former bank president of Enloe State
Bank, pleaded guilty to federal violations, including conspiracy to commit bank
fraud and arson in Sherman, Texas. Court records indicate that Moody’s banking
fraud, which began in 2012, occurred over seven years and culminated in creating
over 100 false nominee loans at Enloe State Bank in Cooper, Texas. As for the
arson charge, Moody admitted in court to setting fire to documents in the bank’s
boardroom to conceal her role in creating the fraudulent loans. In her plea
appearance, before the honorable U.S. Magistrate Judge Christine A. Nowak, the
57-year-old Moody agreed to a prison sentence of seven years and to pay restitution
of $11,136,241.82 (U.S. v Moody, 2020).
Anita Moody was highly regarded in Cooper. She served as a long-time member
of the Cooper Independent School Board and was active in many community and
civic affairs (Harvey & Roller, 2012). She began her banking career at Enloe State
Bank at the age of sixteen and had worked there in various capacities for forty years.
The only indications that something might be off in her personal life, were a couple
of failed marriages and a DWI arrest in early 2017 (Farberov, 2020). The news of
the fire and fraud shocked banking employees, residents of the close-knit
community, and banking regulators. On Friday, May 31, 2019, less than three
weeks after the arson occurred, the Enloe State Bank was closed by the Texas
Department of Banking (FDIC, May 2019)