OFFBEAT: Bank VP Funds Child Adoption With Mentally Ill Client's Money

by Elizabeth Wharton

A former SunTrust Banks Inc. assistant vice president will serve one year in prison for stealing more than $147,000 from an elderly, mentally incapacitated client, claiming she used the money for fertility treatments and to fund her adoption of a child.

You can't make this stuff up.

Prosecutors in the case said that Valerie Spaduzzi, 32, of Atlanta, was left in charge of paying her 69-year-old client’s bills and handling his finances from May 2004 to December 2005, but she took money for her own personal use. Prosecuters said she spent thousands of dollars on airline tickets, luxurious hotels, car rentals, insurance policies, electronics, cell phone payments, and clothing; they had no evidence of her actually using the money for fertitlity treatments or an adoption.

A Fulton County Superior Court judge sentenced Spaduzzi to 15 years in prison on Wednesday, but she will only serve one in prison, spending the rest on probation. 

Spaduzzi pleaded guilty to 43 counts of felony theft on Aug. 21, and is effectively banned from working in a financial institution or handling someone’s finances ever again. She must pay a restitution of $152,116.