Bookkeeper sentenced for stealing $414,000 from company employer

Greenbelt, MD – U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte sentenced Amy Ranee Powell, age 41, of Huntingtown, Maryland today to 30 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for interstate transportation of stolen money in connection with a scheme to embezzle over $414,000 from her employer. Judge Messitte also entered an order that Powell forfeit and pay restitution of $414,122.02.

The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein and Chief J. Thomas Manger of the Montgomery County Police Department.

According to her plea agreement, from 2003 to 2013, Powell worked for an architectural firm in Bethesda, Maryland as a bookkeeper and office manager.  She wrote checks from the company’s bank account to pay the company’s bills.  The company’s owner endorsed the number of blank checks needed to pay the bills, and then gave the checks to Powell to be completed.
      
Powell admitted that from December 2010 through September 2013, she wrote at least 82 unauthorized checks from the company’s account, payable to herself.  The checks ranged in amounts from $500 to $8,000.  On occasion, Powell concealed her fraud by falsifying the check stubs for the unauthorized checks, making it appear that legitimate bills had been paid.

Powell admitted that she diverted at least $414,122.02 from the company’s bank account and deposited those funds into her own bank account.  According to evidence presented to the court, Powell spent all or nearly all of the funds she stole, including the following: at least $18,070 on tickets for Washington’s NFL team, at least $17,157 on wedding expenses, at least $2,994 at a florist, $2,855 at a consumer electronics store, and thousands of dollars more on vacations and numerous expensive meals.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein commended the Montgomery County Police Department, Financial Crimes Section for its work in the investigation and thanked Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Sumon Dantiki and Assistant U.S. Attorney Sujit M. Raman, who prosecuted the case.