Kokomo women sentenced to prison for embezzlement
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A 43-year-old Kokomo woman has been sentenced to 21 months in federal prison for what authorities say was an embezzlement scheme of more than $400,000 from an investment company and five of its related businesses.
Bethany Olmsted wrote checks to herself from the bank accounts of the investment company and five other companies it partially owned while she worked as their controller, the U.S. Department of Justice. To conceal the thefts, she falsely categorized payments as landscaping and repair services, transferred money between company accounts and altered record-keeping.
A DOJ news release did not identify the names of the companies.
In all, the DOJ said Olmsted between November 2018 and September 2021 fraudulently wrote about 520 checks from the companies to herself, which amounted to the theft of $413,531. She used the money to buy spa treatments, jewelry, clothes, and dinners at high-end steakhouses.
“For almost three years, this defendant repaid the trust of her employers with deceit and theft, helping herself to nearly half a million dollars and cooking the books to hide the evidence,” Zachary Myers, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, said in the release. “Fraud and embezzlement can have devastating effects on the victim individuals and companies. The federal prison sentence imposed here demonstrates that those who commit financial crimes will pay a serious price.”
Olmsted pleaded guilty to five counts of wire fraud. In addition to the 21-month prison term issued by U.S. District Court Judge James R. Sweeney II of the Southern District of Indiana, Olmsted was sentenced to two years of probation following her release and ordered to pay $413,531.98 in restitution.