Manager wrote over $400,000 in checks to herself, Georgia cops say. She’s charged
An employee’s forgery scheme cost an Atlanta-area business more than $400,000, Georgia police say.
The 58-year-old woman from Monroe was arrested on forgery, computer theft and other charges after she was accused of bilking her employer out of “hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Gwinnett County police said in a Dec. 18 news release.
Investigators said she wrote 190 checks to herself and accessed the company’s payroll to double her salary.
A LinkedIn profile for the woman shows she was an office manager at WideData Corporation, an IT solutions company based in Norcross.
WideData “took immediate action” and fired her after learning of the scheme, company President Rich Edmundson told McClatchy News in a statement.
“We want to reassure our clients and partners that no client funds were impacted at any time, and this incident was isolated to internal corporate accounts,” Edmundson said. “WideData has strengthened its internal safeguards and remains fully committed to delivering the trusted, secure services our clients have come to rely on.”
Police said the company reported the suspected theft in April.
As part of the scheme, the then-manager submitted phony invoices for different vendors and listed herself as the payee after her employer approved the payments, police said. She did this nearly 200 times, embezzling more than $400,000, authorities said.
Investigators said she also used the company’s payroll software to “hide the money and alter her W-2 each year to avoid paying taxes on the stolen funds.”
Authorities didn’t say how long the scheme went on before the woman was caught. She’s charged with multiple offenses including:
- Computer theft
- Computer forgery
- Theft by taking
- Third-degree forgery
The woman remained in custody at the Gwinnett County Jail on a $33,800 bond as of Dec. 18, online records show.
Monroe is about a 50-mile drive east from downtown Atlanta.
This story was originally published December 18, 2024 at 1:29 PM with the headline "Manager wrote over $400,000 in checks to herself, Georgia cops say. She’s charged."