A Maryland woman was sentenced to two years of imprisonment followed by five years of supervised release for alleged embezzlement and income tax evasion. This woman was also ordered to pay $144,908.33 to the bank for which she worked and $30,000 to the IRS.
This individual was sentenced in federal court. Besides being charged with an embezzlement scheme, she was also accused of underreporting her "embezzlement income" on federal tax returns. The claimed underreporting of income apparently meant that she owed $30,000 to $80,000 in taxes.
This sentencing was apparently all a part of a plea deal that the woman charged made with federal prosecutors. The announcement concerning this woman's sentencing was all a part of an aggressive federal effort to crackdown on financial crimes. Prosecutors released a statement that this "sentencing is a reminder that there are detrimental consequences for this type of criminal behavior."
There are a number of items to be considered concerning these types of prosecutions. Though no one condones employee theft taking place, with more aggressive prosecution there is also likely to be more cases where the rights of those arrested have been violated and innocent people have been charged.
There have already been more than 10,000 financial fraud cases filed during the past three years by the Federal Justice Department leading to the arrest of 15,000 individuals. A federal task force has also been set up to provide increased investigation and prosecution of alleged financial crimes.
Individuals are presumed innocent unless proven guilty. It is up to prosecutors to prove up these sorts of cases, and criminal defense attorneys have the right to question the manner in which arrests have been conducted.
Source: LoanSafe.org, "Germantown Bank Teller to Serve 2-Years in Prison for Embezzling from Customer Accounts," Alex Ferreras, Aug. 16, 2013