Bookkeeper stole over $625,000 during two-year period
Indianapolis - United States Attorney Josh Minkler today announced the sentence of a Seymour, Indiana, woman for her role in a fraud scheme. Angela Kincaid, 44, was sentenced to 41 months (3 ½ years) in federal prison by U.S. District Court Chief Judge Richard L. Young.
“Fraud cannot, and will not, be tolerated - especially fraud by company insiders," said Minkler. “When greed drives a person to abuse a position of trust and defraud his or her employer, especially a small family business, that person will be prosecuted by my office to the fullest extent of the law."
Kincaid used her position as bookkeeper to conceal and perpetrate her theft from her employer, a small family manufacturing business in Seymour, Indiana. Just a month after starting as bookkeeper, she began cutting company checks to herself by forging the company president’s signature. All told, Kincaid forged over 170 checks and stole over $625,000, which she spent largely on personal luxuries, such as second and third homes, cars, vacations, jewelry, NFL football tickets, guitars, amps, drums, and over 35 firearms.
She used her position as bookkeeper and the trust and authority the company’s managers afforded her, to conceal her fraud. She made numerous false entries in the company’s accounting ledger that omitted any reference to the checks she cut to herself. In addition, upon learning that the company engaged an outside auditor to review its books and compare them to bank records, Kincaid manipulated copies of the bank records in a way that completely concealed her embezzlement.
Finally, when the company’s bank account ran low - due to her theft - she created a false email account and impersonated a company official to authorize the bank to replenish the company’s checking account from its line of credit. Not only did Kincaid steal the company’s cash, but her scheme also put it several hundred thousand dollars in debt. The court sentenced her accordingly.
According to Assistant United States Attorney Nick Linder, who prosecuted this case for the government, Kincaid must make full restitution to the victim company and serve three years of supervised release after her prison term.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
