This week, an Indiana woman was sentenced to prison and ordered to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in restitution after a years-long scheme to defraud her employer.
On Tuesday, October 6, 52 year old Tracy Cox was sentenced to 24 months in prison and was ordered to pay $381,759 in restitution, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office Northern District of Indiana.
Cox formerly worked in accounts payable for Gary, Indiana-based trucking company Corico Inc.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office describes the scheme:
According to documents in the case, between May of 2011 and July of 2018, Ms. Cox used her position at a Gary, Indiana trucking company to defraud her employer. She diverted over $381,759 for her own use by creating approximately 400 unauthorized transfers. She devised a scheme in which she entered the payment system and authorized a series of check numbers to make them available for use by truck drivers. She then obtained the authorization codes for the checks, made them payable to herself, and filled in the dollar amount or obtained a cash advance. To cover her scheme, Ms. Cox altered years of bank statements to hide the true balances.
Comdata reportedly contacted Corico in July 2018 to inform the company of the fraudulent transactions. When company leaders confronted her, she left and never returned.
“When an employee takes advantage of an employer’s trust to steal for the employer, the consequences can have a trickle-down effect for the employer and the other employees, costing jobs and causing economic hardship,” said United States Attorney Thomas L. Kirsch II. “My Office is dedicated to prosecuting fraud schemes like this and will continuously work with our law enforcement partners on these investigations.”