Court Order Freezes Accounts of Accused Bank Embezzler

Lawyers for El Camino Bank have obtained a court order freezing stock and bank accounts of a former vice president who was fired Tuesday after the bank concluded she had embezzled as much as $140,000.

The allegations against Pauline Omae, who was also manager of the real estate department of the Anaheim-based bank, surfaced in an Orange County Superior Court lawsuit.

A $1,200 cashier’s check, drawn from five different El Camino accounts and made payable to Omae’s personal account at Security Pacific National Bank, was discovered Tuesday, according to a declaration by El Camino President D. William McDermott filed with the lawsuit.

When Omae was confronted with the check, she “admitted taking those funds,” McDermott’s declaration alleged.

McDermott, acting with chief financial officer Ed Lemoine and board Chairman Stanley J. Pawlowski, fired Omae, who could not be reached for comment.

Asked if she had taken any other money, according to the lawsuit, Omae answered, “This is the first time.” But the bank’s investigation turned up records of $141,427.95 in cashier’s checks that had been paid to Omae’s personal accounts at Security Pacific National Bank, Beverly Hills Savings & Loan, and Bateman, Eichler, Hill, Richards, Inc. and to her personal account or that of a relative at Charles Schwab and Co. Inc., according to the lawsuit. All those accounts were frozen by order of Superior Judge Judith M. Ryan.

The bank also alleged that embezzled funds had been traced to payments to a general contractor who recently remodeled Omae’s Anaheim home. The total value of the remodeling exceeded $60,000, according to the lawsuit.

Neither bank officials nor lawyers could be reached.

According to the lawsuit, which the bank filed in order to obtain the order freezing the accounts, Omae had been employed “for several years,” rising from loan secretary to vice president.

The 17-year-old bank is the county’s oldest independent bank. It had four branches and $109 million in assets as of March 31, 1987. Its sale to Citizens Holdings of Costa Mesa is pending.