Seneca Bank Officer In District Court

Contributed by WGOG

A former bank officer at Oconee-based Community First Bank was in federal court yesterday in Anderson for an initial appearance, according to sources in the US District Court. The proceeding for Benjamin Lee Hiott is an arraignment. According to sources with the federal court system, Hiott faces three counts of bank fraud. He is also a co-defendant in a civil proceeding in Oconee County, in which a Hilton Head Island woman alleges a series of deceptions cost her a $1.1 million trust, with which she had entrusted Community First and had given Hiott, its then vice president, power of attorney.The civil lawsuit alleges that Hiott wrote cashiers checks amounting to $800 thousand dollars to a third individual “and received nothing of value in return.”