BIRMINGHAM - Federal prosecutors on Monday charged a Birmingham woman with stealing more than $350,000 from homeowner associations, announced U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance and FBI Special Agent in Charge Roger C. Stanton.
In a one-count information filed in U.S. District Court, the U.S. Attorney’s Office charged JILL ROUSE BOOTHBY, 42, with one count of wire fraud. The U.S. Attorney’s Office also filed a plea agreement with Boothby. According to the agreement, Boothby will plead guilty to the charge and pay restitution in the amount of $375,750.
According to the information, Boothby was employed as a property manager at Boothby Realty from 2008 through January 2015. Boothby Realty is a real estate and property management company located in Birmingham. Boothby also owned and operated an interior design business called Jill Boothby Designs. The design company is a separate and independent company from Boothby Realty and is run solely by Boothby.
As a property manager at Boothby Realty, Boothby was personally responsible for the management of 11 condominium associations within the Birmingham metropolitan area. Boothby attended homeowner association meetings, assisted with the use and accounting of the homeowner association funds, coordinated maintenance services at the properties, helped bid contracts for maintenance and improvements to the properties, and assisted the associations with budgeting. As expenses were incurred by the various associations, Boothby would advise Boothby Realty’s accounting personnel of the invoices and expenses to be paid from the homeowner associations’ funds.
The government’s plea agreement with Boothby states that, beginning in late 2012 and continuing to about January 2015, Boothby created false and fraudulent invoices for goods and services in the name of her company, Jill Boothby Designs, and submitted the various invoices to the 11 condominium associations that she managed. The Jill Boothby Designs invoices contained descriptions of items billed to the various associations, however, neither Boothby nor her design company actually purchased the items. Boothby submitted the fraudulent invoices to her employer, Boothby Realty, with a copy to the homeowner associations for payment out of the homeowner associations’ funds. The realty company paid the fraudulent invoices to Boothby out of the associations’ funds. To further conceal the fraud, Boothby altered the monthly financial statements that were submitted to Boothby Realty to be mailed or emailed to the associations.
The maximum punishment for wire fraud is 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The FBI investigated the case, which Assistant U.S. Attorney Robin Beardsley Mark is prosecuting.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
