A federal grand jury in California indicted a woman on 15 counts related to an alleged $3 million embezzlement scheme. The 47-year-old woman was arrested in early November for activities that are believed to have taken place between 2017 and 2019.
Unauthorized transfers
According to the indictment, the accused woman transferred a total of $3,071,880 from bank accounts that belonged to Trilogy Plumbing, Inc. and Matrix Management, LLC. The money was transferred into several bank accounts belonging to the accused woman, her friends and her family members in the US and Mexico.
Much of the money that was transferred was withdrawn in cash at ATMs in the US and Mexico, according to the indictment. The woman’s charges include:
- Eight counts of wire fraud
- Four counts of money laundering
- Three counts of falsifying a tax return
The maximum federal prison sentence for the accused woman’s charges is three years for falsifying tax returns, 10 years for money laundering and 20 years for wire fraud. In a case like this, a criminal defense lawyer may seek reduced charges in a plea deal unless the defendant has a strong defense against the allegations.
Payroll issues
The indictment alleges that the accused woman withheld information about the embezzlement from company executives. She allegedly told executives that the companies could not afford to make payroll. When the Internal Revenue Service began investigating the companies for unpaid payroll taxes, the woman told executives that she had not paid payroll taxes because she had used the money to pay employees.
The woman was also accused of falsifying tax returns in 2017, 2018 and 2019. Not including the embezzled funds as part of her annual income added more charges to the indictment.
