A 60-year-old Winter Park woman was sentenced to three years in federal prison after she was convicted of embezzling over $700,000 from her employer who she worked with for over 27 years.
On Thursday, December 15, U.S. District Judge Thomas P. Barber sentenced Pamela Smith to three years for wire fraud. As part of her sentence, Smith was also ordered to forfeit $500,000 and her home, which was substantially remodeled using stolen funds.
According to court records, Smith was employed as an office manager for a family-owned construction company for 27 years. As part of her duties, Smith was responsible for handling the company’s payroll and had access to the company’s business accounts.
Dating back to at least 2008, Smith made payments on multiple personal credit cards directly from the company’s business bank accounts without her employer’s permission. Beginning in 2013, Smith altered payroll to increase her weekly salary by $1,000 per week without her employer’s permission. By the time her employer discovered the fraud, Smith was embezzling $2,000 per week.
In total, Smith stole at least $700,000 from her employer and used the funds to purchase cars, renovate her home, and live above her means. She took multiple steps to conceal her criminal activity, including transferring the money between business bank accounts, limiting access to the company’s monthly bank statements, and altering the company’s general ledger.