SAN DIEGO—A Wells Fargo banker in Southern California has been sentenced to more than two years in prison for embezzling at least $293,000 from customer accounts.

U-T San Diego reports ( Ricardo Benavente was sentenced Tuesday in a San Diego federal courtroom. He also was ordered to pay restitution for the stolen funds and $88,000 to the IRS.

Benavente pleaded guilty to conspiracy to embezzle and filing a false tax return. Prosecutors say he set up an elaborate trail of false accounts, PayPal transactions, withdrawal slips and cashier's checks to make it appear the clients were making the transactions themselves.

Authorities said Benavente tried to steal a total of $750,000 but the bank was able to recover most of the funds.


Information from: U-T San Diego,