DENVER -- A Denver bank trust official has been charged with allegedly stealing about $1 million from an 88-year-old widow, according to court records.

Gregory Phillip Burns, 40, was arrested Dec. 5 after officials at Colorado Business Bank alerted the Denver district attorney's office about suspicious withdrawals from a trust account created by the widow's late husband, according to court records.

A bank review found an estimated $1 million in withdrawals since November 2005 from the trust fund that was created to provide for the elderly woman's financial support, health care and other needs, according to court records.

Burns was formally charged Tuesday with eight counts of felony theft, district attorney spokeswoman Lynn Kimbrough said Friday.

The trust officer, who had planned to fly to London on vacation this week and owns property in Belize, was released on $200,000 bond and ordered to surrender his passport, according to court records.

Ross Thompson, manager of the bank's trust department, told an investigator he noticed on Nov. 5 a cashier's check payable to a US Bank credit card account had been written off the woman's trust account.

Burns, as the woman's trust administrator, had not filed the required discretionary disbursement form "noting why this payment was made on (the woman's) behalf," according to a statement by district attorney's investigator Teresa Wertsch supporting a search warrant for Burns' personal bank account.

When Thompson questioned Burns about the check, the trust officer claimed the money was paid to the woman's credit card account and she received the statements directly. Burns said he routinely met with the woman at her home where she told him how much to pay on the credit card bill.

"Burns further told Thompson that (the client) shredded the statements soon after their review" and that's why the bank had no documents on file for the manager's inspection, according to court records.

Thompson told Burns to get a copy of the statement, but for three weeks Burns gave repeated excuses for delays in getting the records, the search warrant affidavit stated.

The investigator eventually discovered the US Bank credit card account was in Burns' name -- not the widow's, according to court records. A bank review found several withdrawals, each between $20,000 and $30,000, had been made from the trust to pay bills for Burns' credit card, according to court records.