A Filipino woman in New Jersey in the United States has been sentenced to more than two years in prison for embezzling around US$900,000 from her employer.
Violeta McGough, 55, a former accounting specialist, pleaded guilty to a charge of wire fraud and was sentenced in Newark federal court on June 3.
According to documents filed in the court, from 2008 to October 2015 McGough made numerous fraudulent accounting entries to steal funds that her employer collected as insurance premiums, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported.
The premiums were for policies underwritten and issued by a company in an insurance syndicate based in the United Kingdom. McGough was responsible for tracking the premiums and collecting monthly payments for the syndicate.
However, she diverted a portion of those payments for her personal use and disguised the stolen funds as reimbursed premiums for canceled policies.
She got her employer to generate checks payable to a person who supposedly worked for a company that financed premiums who actually did not work there. McGough then deposited the checks into a bank account and the bulk of the funds were transmitted back to McGough’s account.
McGough was sentenced to 27 months in prison for wire fraud, which has a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of up to US$250,000.