Worker fakes death, tries to hide $4M she stole working in Florida, feds say
.jpg "A woman from Lee County, Florida, was sentenced to prison on charges of wire fraud and money laundering after federal prosecutors say she stole millions from her employer.")
A woman faked her death after her employer learned of financial discrepancies within the company, revealing her multimillion dollar theft of business funds, federal prosecutors say.
Now, she’s prison-bound.
Madelyn Hernandez, of Lee County, Florida, stole $4,199,498.42 from a textile and apparel supply chain company as a longtime employee of the business, a federal investigation revealed.
Her defense attorney, Douglas Molloy, didn’t immediately return McClatchy News’ request for comment April 14.
Hernandez worked remotely for the company from 2004 until July 2024 while living in Florida, court documents say. She was in charge of placing orders with vendors and other business logistics involving shipping, invoicing and inventory.
The company wasn’t identified by prosecutors. It was based in New York before it fully went virtual in 2019, according to prosecutors.
The scheme
The scheme began in 2018, when Hernandez started stealing from the company by creating and submitting “false invoices of purported goods ordered from suppliers, vendors, and third parties to (her company) for payment,” prosecutors wrote in court filings.
She did so to make it seem as if her employer owed money to various fabric suppliers, prosecutors say. One of the purported fabric companies was Cape Prints, a business “controlled by (her),” according to court documents.
By emailing her company fake invoices, Hernandez scammed her employer into issuing payments that ended up in her own bank accounts, prosecutors say.
She used the money she stole from her company on “personal expenses and for gambling,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida.
She tries to fake her death
After the company realized there were financial discrepancies tied to Hernandez, it began investigating her, according to prosecutors.
The realization came as the company was preparing to close by the end of 2024, court documents say.
As Hernandez’s employer began taking a closer look at her business activities, they received a message about her purported death, prosecutors say.
The message claimed to be from Hernandez’s family member and said Hernandez had been ill and died following surgery-related complications, according to prosecutors.
The company ultimately alerted authorities, leading to the FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation visiting her home in October to carry out a search warrant, prosecutors say.
Sentenced to prison
On Jan. 10, a criminal information document charged Hernandez with three counts of wire fraud and two counts of money laundering, the filing shows.
She pleaded guilty to all counts on Jan. 28, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
United States District Judge Thomas P. Barber sentenced Hernandez, 49, of Lehigh Acres, to 10 years in prison on the charges, the U.S. Attorney’s Office says.
When FBI and IRS agents interviewed Hernandez the day both agencies searched her home in October, she “admitted to” stealing her company’s money for her own benefit and that she “went to the casino,” court documents say.
Hernandez also “admitted that she has a gambling problem,” prosecutors wrote in court filings.
Hernandez told agents that she “did not want (her company) to find out what she was doing” and that she would occasionally return some of the funds she stole, according to prosecutors.
“She said that she did not think what she took was as high as $4 million,” court documents say.
Hernandez further revealed it was her who messaged her employer, saying she died, instead of her relative, according to court documents.
Hernandez has been ordered to forfeit the amount she stole, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
This story was originally published April 14, 2025 at 2:17 PM with the headline "Worker fakes death, tries to hide $4M she stole working in Florida, feds say."
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