Cleveland – A vice president at KeyBank, which operates in Colorado, has been arrested on a charge that he embezzled $29 million from the Cleveland-based banking company, the FBI said today.
David Francis Verhotz, 56, of Cleveland, was arrested Saturday at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport after getting off a flight from Dallas. Verhotz was a senior vice president and director of the international division of KeyBank.
FBI special agent Scott Wilson said the scheme occurred from January 2004 to the present. Verhotz was to make an initial appearance in U.S. District Court this afternoon.
The bank has terminated Verhotz, said Mike Monroe, a spokesman for parent company KeyCorp. Monroe said the alleged embezzlement was recently discovered internally, but he declined to elaborate.
“We are cooperating fully with the FBI’s criminal investigation and we are continuing our own internal investigation,” Monroe said.
A June 2005 newsletter from KeyBank’s international unit said Verhotz had 30 years of international banking experience and joined the company in 1995 after working previously in international banking at Fidelity Bank in Philadelphia and Chemical Bank in New York.
KeyBank is owned by KeyCorp, which has more than 900 branches across Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Utah, Vermont and Washington.
