Woman indicted on fraud charges after $1M theft from employer
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A former employee at a Greenfield repair shop who is accused of stealing $1 million from the company over a multi-year period has been indicted on five federal wire fraud charges.
The indictment against Jennifer Horton was filed March 5 in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Indiana.
According to the indictment, Horton engaged in two separate schemes to divert money from the company into her own bank accounts between 2016 and 2022.
Horton’s employer is not fully identified in the indictment and is called Company 1, a Greenfield-based business “specializing in residential and light commercial repair and restoration” and owned by an individual identified only as D.M.
But in a separate civil suit filed in May 2023 in Hancock Superior Court, H.D. Contracting Inc. sued Jennifer Horton and her husband, Jonathon Horton. That suit’s allegations mirror those laid out in the criminal indictment.
Beginning in 2016, the indictment says, Jennifer Horton began submitting false information about her salary to the company’s payroll processing company, which resulted in her receiving “a weekly salary substantially in excess of her approved salary.”
In 2020 Horton added her husband—who was not a company employee—to the firm’s payroll, the indictment says.
The indictment also accuses Horton of diverting customers’ credit card payments for her own use. She did this, the indictment says, by transferring funds from a company account to accounts that she had access to. To cover up the theft, Horton is alleged to have altered the company’s invoices by making it appear that the customer had paid a lower amount, then pocketing the difference between that amount and the amount the customer had actually paid.
Horton stole $621,546 from the company via the fraudulent payroll statements and $381,134 in customer payments, the indictment says.
Horton’s attorney, Khalid Kahloon of Louisville, did not immediately respond to a voicemail and an email message left with him Wednesday morning.
Last year, local prosecutors brought one charge of theft and one charge of fraud against Jennifer Horton in Hancock Circuit Court. Those charges were dropped at the state’s request in October.
A jury trial on the federal charges is scheduled for May 13. If convicted, Horton faces up to 20 years incarceration followed by three years of supervised release, plus a $250,000 fine.
She would also be required to forfeit any property acquired with the fraudulently obtained money, including four vehicles: model year 2021 and 2022 Ford Mustangs, a 2020 Ford Ecosport and a 2022 Ford F350. Prosecutors say they will also seek a forfeiture order for $1 million cash.