Fitchburg woman pleads guilty to embezzling over $1.3M from employer
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The John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse (center) is the main courthouse for the U.S. District Court in Boston.
A former Fitchburg office manager pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Boston to embezzling over $1.3 million dollars from her employer over a ten year period.
The release from the Office of United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz said that Dawnmarie Prince, 47, pleaded guilty to eight counts of bank fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. Her sentencing will take place on Sept. 16.
Prince worked as an office manager at a Woburn-based life science technology firm where she was responsible for handling the firm’s accounts payable. According to the release, at least between 2005 and 2015 Prince used her position to steal hundreds of checks that she made payable to herself or her son. Prince then forged her boss’s signature on the stolen checks, and deposited them into her personal bank accounts.
To conceal her criminal conduct and avoid detection, Prince removed copies of the negotiated checks when sent back by the bank, and falsified entries into the bookkeeping software program to make it appear as if the stolen checks had been used to pay legitimate vendors. In total, Prince embezzled over $1.3 million, which she spent on personal expenses, according to Ortiz's office.
In 2001, Prince was convicted of mail fraud for defrauding a previous employer and sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to pay restitution.
For the charges that she pleaded guilty for, Prince faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a $1,000,000 fine on each of the bank fraud counts, as well as a mandatory consecutive term of two years in prison, one year of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000 for the aggravated identity theft charge. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
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