Woman defrauds nonprofit of nearly $400,000 to launch bridal boutique, feds say
A woman defrauded a Louisiana nonprofit of nearly $400,000 while working for the organization and used the money for her own business ventures, federal prosecutors said.
The 41-year-old Marksville resident began stealing from the Rapides Parish Council on Aging soon after she was hired as a bookkeeper in July 2018, according to prosecutors. Marksville is a city 85 miles northwest of Baton Rouge.
The organization provides older individuals in Rapides Parish with services, including home care and meals as well as medical, financial and prescription help.
For three years, the woman stole more than $100,000 from the nonprofit each year and used the money to launch her businesses, including Kay’s Bridal Boutique and Southern Sass Closet, according to prosecutors.
Kay’s Bridal Boutique in Alexandria and Southern Sass Closet, a clothing boutique in Marksville, are listed as permanently closed and temporarily closed on Google as of Jan. 3.
The woman is sentenced
A judge has sentenced the woman to three years in prison after she pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud in July, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Louisiana announced in a Jan. 3 news release.
McClatchy News contacted her defense attorney, George L. Higgins III, for comment on Jan. 3 and didn’t receive an immediate response.
As part of the woman’s sentencing, she must pay $388,946.82 in restitution, prosecutors said.
How the nonprofit’s money was stolen
When the woman worked for the Rapides Parish Council on Aging, she “caused checks to be issued on its account, purportedly payable to vendors, but she actually forged endorsements and deposited those checks into her personal account,” prosecutors said.
She wrongfully obtained about 170 checks in total between January 2019 and December 2021, according to her indictment.
The woman did so by mislabeling the checks in the nonprofit’s accounting ledger — allowing her scheme to continue undetected during that time frame, prosecutors said.
On one occasion, she issued herself an $1,800 check in addition to her paycheck, according to officials.
Then, she changed the check to make it appear as if it had gone to a vendor before she gave it to the nonprofit’s accounting firm, prosecutors said.
The woman’s prison sentence will be followed by three years of supervised release, according to the attorney’s office.
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