Bank Controller Pleads Guilty to Diverting Funds

The controller of Founders National Bank, Los Angeles’ only black-owned and black-operated commercial bank, pleaded guilty in federal court Friday to misappropriating nearly $413,000.

Siriluck Hastanand, 47, of La Canada Flintridge admitted transferring the money from the bank’s internal accounts to a savings account she held in trust for her daughter.

Federal prosecutors said she made 46 money transfers from 1991 through 1997. After each transfer, she withdrew the money from her daughter’s account.

Hastanand will be sentenced Aug. 28 by U.S. District Judge William J. Rea.