KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A Kansas City, Mo., woman has been sentenced in federal court for a fraud scheme in which she embezzled more than $1 million from her employer.
Janee C. Rosenthal, 56, of Kansas City, was sentenced by Chief U.S. District Judge Greg Kays on Friday, April 13, 2018, to three years and two months in federal prison without parole. The court also ordered Rosenthal to pay $1,097,000 in restitution.
On Sept. 22, 2017, Rosenthal pleaded guilty to two counts of mail fraud and two counts of wire fraud.
Rosenthal worked as a controller and later as a division director for Firestone Optics, Inc., as wholesaler of contact lenses located in Kansas City, Mo. Rosenthal admitted that she embezzled $1,097,448 from the company over an approximately nine-year period from June 2007 to May 2016 in order to pay down balances on her personal credit card account. She used the funds for travel (including a Norwegian cruise), dining, house expenses, clothing, entertainment (including tickets for the Kansas City Royals and the Kansas City Chiefs), utilities, vehicle and fuel expenses, health and cosmetics, groceries, taxes, computer and electronics, jewelry and pet expenses.
Rosenthal issued and signed checks drawn on the company’s bank account and made payable to her personal credit card account. She also made wire fund transfers from the company’s bank account to her personal credit card account for personal goods and services that had been charged on her credit card. Rosenthal, who made 88 fraudulent transactions as part of her scheme, falsely represented in Firestone Optics’s accounting ledgers that certain of her personal expenditures were legitimate business expenses.
As of the date of the sentencing hearing, according to court documents, Rosenthal has not made a single payment towards the amount she owes her victims nor has she offered an apology to them.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Rudolph R. Rhodes IV. It was investigated by the FBI.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
