Kentucky woman sentenced for stealing $260,000 from employer
A Kentucky woman who stole almost $263,000 from her employer has been sentenced to three years and one month in federal prison.
Amy D. Hall pleaded guilty to seven charges of wire fraud.
Hall, 38, of Shelbyville, was the accounting controller for a design and construction company in Louisville. Court records did not include the name of the company.
Hall admitted in her plea agreement that she used a debit card and credit card from the company for personal spending, including loan payments, utility and insurance payments, dining out, and shopping and vacation expenses, among them a trip to Aruba.
She also wrote unauthorized checks to herself from a related company, according to the plea agreement.
The construction company started having cash flow problems, which led to the owners paying employees out of their personal account and laying off some employees, according to a sentencing memorandum from the prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicole Elver.
Hall took steps to conceal her thefts, including delaying the switch to a new accounting system and refusing to allow others at the company to access the system, according to the memo.
The owners ultimately found that Hall had initiated a transfer of money from the company’s line of credit to its operating account to cover expenses, which she wasn’t authorized to do.
Hall quit soon after, according to the court record.
However, the company mistakenly left her company debit card active after Hall left and she continued using it for payments, according to the prosecution memo.
“She only stopped because she was caught,” Elver wrote.
Hall’s sentence includes restitution of $262,897 to the two companies.
U.S. District Judge Benjamin Beaton sentenced Hall Monday.
