Former Missoula Credit Union Employee Sentenced to Prison for Embezzling $389,000 by Swapping Real Money for Fake Currency

A former Missoula credit union employee who admitted to embezzling approximately $389,000 from the vault by swapping real money with fake funds was sentenced yesterday to six months in prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $389,000 restitution, Acting U.S. Attorney Timothy J. Racicot said. The defendant, Edward Arthur Nurse, 35, of Missoula, pleaded guilty in October 2024 to an indictment charging him with theft from a credit union. U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy presided. The court also sentenced Nurse to six months of home confinement and to perform 600 hours of community service. The court allowed Nurse to self-report to prison. In court documents, the government alleged that from about July 2023 to June 2024, Nurse embezzled from his employer, Park Side Credit Union in Missoula. In June 2024, an employee discovered $340,000 in cash in the credit union’s vault had been replaced with fake funds from a company that provides fake currency as props for movies and entertainment productions. Nurse used his position as “team lead” for the vault to swap the credit union’s cash with fake money he purchased specifically for this purpose. Nurse hid his conduct from security cameras, auditors and his colleagues by putting real money at the front and back of bundles of fake money. Nurse made multiple purchases of fake money and stole the real cash from his work at different times over a seven-month period. After the credit union discovered the thefts, Nurse claimed to an FBI special agent that he did not usually carry much cash and, aside from a vacation to Las Vegas, Nevada, he had not made any recent large purchases or cash deposits. However, records show that Nurse made at least nine cash deposits of over $10,000 each in 2024 into his personal account. The investigation also determined that during the first six months of 2024, Nurse had purchased $410,000 in fake currency from a prop money company. The credit union was later informed that approximately $50,000 in fake money had been received by the Federal Reserve in July 2024. Those funds were returned and determined to be fake bills from the prop money company. The U.S. Attorney’s Office prosecuted the case. The FBI, with assistance from the Missoula Police Department, conducted the investigation.