SAN FRANCISCO - Krisinda Messer, aka Krisinda Garay, pleaded guilty in federal court in San Francisco today to bank fraud, announced United States Attorney Brian J. Stretch and Michael T. Batdorf, Special Agent in Charge Internal Revenue Service. The plea was accepted by the Honorable Charles R. Breyer, U.S. District Judge, in San Francisco.
In pleading guilty, Messer, 37, of Pacifica, admitted she was employed as a bookkeeper by delicatessens in San Francisco from 2007 to 2011. Beginning in May 2008, and continuing through August 2011, Messer created 130 fraudulent checks totaling $436,396.52, all but two of which she made payable to her father’s company, American Backflow Company (“ABC"). Messer acknowledged ABC was not a creditor of the delicatessens and there was no business relationship between them. Messer also admitted she forged the signature of the delicatessens’ owner on most of the checks. Additionally, in order to conceal these checks from her employers, Messer created a fake company account on QuickBooks and used the fake company to produce checks written to ABC so that they would not appear in the books. Messer also admitted she did not report the income on her federal income tax returns for 2008 through 2011, inclusive.
A federal grand jury indicted Messer on May 12, 2015. She was charged with 12 counts of bank fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1344(2); four counts of aggravated identity theft, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1028A(a)(1); and three counts of subscribing to false tax returns, in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7206(1). Under today’s plea agreement, Messer pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud and the remaining counts will be dismissed.
Messer was released on a $50,000 bond. Judge Breyer scheduled Messer’s sentencing for Oct. 17, 2017, at 10:00 a.m. The maximum statutory penalty for the bank fraud violation is 30 years in prison and a fine of $1,000,000, plus restitution. However, any sentence will be imposed by the court only after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the federal statute governing the imposition of a sentence, 18 U.S.C. § 3553.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Cynthia Stier is prosecuting the case. The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
