NEWS RELEASE
UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE
WESTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA

John L. Brownlee
United States Attorney
Heidi Coy
Public Affairs Specialist BB&T Building
310 1st Street, S.W., Room 906
Roanoke, Virginia 24011
(540) 857-2250
FAX (540) 857-2180

January 12, 2007

BOTETOURT WOMAN INDICTED FOR MONEY
LAUNDERING, MAIL FRAUD AND WIRE FRAUD

United States Attorney John L. Brownlee, Special Agent in Charge of the Richmond Division of the IRS Charles Pine, and Special Agent in Charge of the Richmond Division of the FBI Charles J. Cunningham announced today that Monica Blair Yates, age 40, of Daleville, Virginia, was indicted by a Grand Jury sitting in Roanoke, Virginia. Yates is charged in a ten count indictment with mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering.

According to the indictment, Yates was an employee of CUNA Mutual Life Insurance in Roanoke from November 16, 2001 to May 19, 2006. Yates was an employee of Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc. from May 19, 2006 until she was terminated in August 2006. On August 7, 2006, Yates established Blair's Consulting Group, LLC.

The Grand Jury has alleged that Yates devised a scheme to take money from CUNA and Merrill Lynch customers for her own personal benefit.

The Grand Jury has alleged that beginning in 2004, Yates would falsely lead CUNA customers to believe she was investing their funds in appropriate financial products, when Yates was actually using the investor/victim's funds for her own personal benefit. Yates continued to deceive her customers while employed by Merrill Lynch.

As part of the scheme, Yates would convince customers to terminate their long term variable annuities and invest in short term financial products, even though terminating the long term products would carry a substantial early termination penalty.
According to the indictment, Yates would tell investors that she could invest their money in short-term financial products which earned high rates of return and the victim/investors would be reimbursed for any surrender charges incurred. The rates that Yates promised were higher than those offered by CUNA.

The notices to cancel investor/victim's long term annuities were sent by fax or mail. When the long term annuities were liquidated, the cashiers checks were not invested in short term financial products as promised, but were deposited by Yates into bank accounts that she owned and controlled. Yates would then use this money for her own personal gain.

The indictment alleges that the scheme impacted 18 CUNA customers and four Merrill Lynch customers. The intended loss was in excess of $3,500,000. The actual loss to the victim/investors was approximately $1,300,000. Some of the victim/investors were repaid with proceeds Yates obtained from later victim/investors.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service, the Botetourt County Sheriff's Office and the Botetourt County Commonwealth's Attorney's Office.

If convicted on all counts, the maximum penalty faced by the defendant is 160 years in prison and a fine of $2,750,000.

A Grand Jury indictment is only a charge and not evidence of guilt. The defendants are entitled to a fair trial with the burden on the government to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.