Woman set to plea in Pa. minority-owned bank fraud

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A Pittsburgh woman is scheduled to change her not guilty plea in a $1.1 million bank fraud that contributed to the failure of what had been the city’s only minority-owned bank.

Forty-six-year-old Jammie Harris was indicted by a federal grand last year on charges of bank fraud and money laundering. She was accused of siphoning money from Dwelling House Savings and Loan by making overdraft transactions online.

Harris is scheduled to change her plea before a federal judge this afternoon.

PNC Bank assumed all of Dwelling House’s deposits and transformed it into a PNC Branch after federal regulators closed it down in 2009 because Dwelling House couldn’t absorb $3 million in fraud losses, including those allegedly caused by Harris.