Chesterfield woman sentenced for $195,000 embezzlement from Truist, faking death

CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) -- A Chesterfield County woman was sentenced to two years in prison on Monday after stealing $195,000 from Truist Bank customers, then faking her own death, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

Thirty-five-year-old Ahshah Dior Martin, of Chesterfield County, was sentenced Monday, Dec. 1, to 24 months in prison after pleading guilty to embezzlement charges and making false statements in connection with her time as a Truist Financial Corporation employee back in July 2025, per the DOJ.

Martin began stealing customers’ banking information in 2023, according to court documents.

"Over several months, Martin abused her position within Truist Bank to steal financial information from customers and used that stolen information to make fraudulent transactions," federal prosecutors wrote in an Nov. 6 filing. "Martin’s fraud was calculated, deliberate, and repetitive."

However, after pleading guilty over three months prior, Martin continued to "engage in dangerous, criminal conduct by threatening physical harm to another person in a social media post," per court documents.

She then used that information to charge customer accounts and withdraw money from them.

Martin stole about $195,000 from at least 70 Truist customer accounts in total. This included accounts belonging to several churches, a children’s museum, an eye tissue bank nonprofit, multiple manufacturing and construction companies and the North Carolina Wing of the Civil Air Patrol, per court documents.

She also laundered stolen funds through third-party payment platforms, such as MyChildSupport.com. She transferred the victim's information to her own personal email account, which is against Truist policy.

According to court documents, Martin was confronted by management on Feb. 7, 2024, and then left for lunch and never again returned to work at Truist.

On April 14, 2024, Martin was officially terminated from Truist Financial Corporation.

After Truist attempted to retrieve Martin's work laptop -- which she refused to return -- she instead faked her own death, per court documents.

"And she went so far [as] to fake her own death when Truist attempted to regain possession of corporate devices after terminating Martin’s employment," federal prosecutors wrote. "Only when she got caught by federal law enforcement did Martin show contrition."

In addition to her 2-year sentence, she was ordered to pay more than $12,061.27 in restitution and serve five years of supervised release.