Shelton woman accused of stealing tens of thousands of dollars from Port Orchard business
A 23-year-old Shelton woman who worked as a bookkeeper at Pro West Landscaping for about a year has been accused of embezzling nearly $30,000 from her employer through Cash App. Investigators also found multiple fraudulently signed checks from her time in the job for money that was directed to herself and her fiancée, according to court documents.
Prosecutors charged Anastasia Caitlin Rogers with one count of first-degree theft in Kitsap County Superior Court late last month.
Rogers began work at the Port Orchard-based landscaping business in January 2022, and after a new bookkeeper took over the work in January this year, the new bookkeeper began noticing suspicious transactions on the business's accounts, a Kitsap County sheriff's detective wrote in a report. She showed the transactions to the business owner, who confirmed that they were fraudulent, the detective reported.
The business provided statements that showed there were 121 transfers totaling about $29,700 using Cash App with the name "Stasi" – the name that the new bookkeeper and the business owner knew Rogers by – listed in the description, according to court documents. They reported that it was not the business's practice to use the app, and the detective said the owner did not appear to fully understand what Cash App was. The two said paychecks were supposed to be signed by the owner and handed to employees.
The owner later told the detective that Rogers had also been fraudulently signing checks to herself, according to court documents. The man showed multiple checks that had signatures that "clearly" varied from other signatures on other checks he knew to be legitimate, the detective wrote, noting that there was about $6,300 worth of checks written to Rogers that appeared to be separate from her normal paychecks.
read more: North Kitsap woman accused of embezzling nearly $300,000 from wellness center
The detective reviewed other checks that had inconsistent signatures and found several that went to employees and official business expenses while others went to Rogers's fiancée, according to court documents. The detective reported that after comparing a QuickBooks printout of his pay to the checks found with abnormal signatures, he found that an additional roughly $16,500 had been written to the fiancée.
"(The owner) did admit that he had gotten busy and did not question that he was not signing as many checks as he use (sic) to," the detective wrote.
After the new bookkeeper first started to notice the suspicious activity, she contacted Rogers, who reportedly "explained some of the accounts and issues she had as the bookkeeper." Rogers said that she had paid herself using Cash App "'a couple weeks ago as I have not been able to pay myself since October and needed to pay our mortgage, I know this isn't correct but I was risking debt collection due to later payment and wasn't sure if/when I would be able to be paid,'" the detective wrote, quoting her. The "Stasi" Cash App transactions began before October and dated back to August, the detective noted.
The business owner said Rogers had not worked overtime to account for the extra pay and said that she had destroyed the timecards so time for her or any other employee could not be verified, the detective said. Attempts to contact Rogers were unsuccessful, the detective wrote.
This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Bookkeeper accused of stealing from Port Orchard business
