Major Embezzlement Cases: July 16 - 23

Sarah Ann Kwasinskas

Sarah Ann Kwasinskas, 30, of Naugatuck, Connecticut is facing trial for allegedly embezzling $254,000 from Naugatuck Valley Savings & Loan, where she had been employed as a teller.   Kwasinskas was originally charged in January 2012 and faces felony larceny in the first degree.  Authorities allege that Kwasinskas transferred funds from 17 bank customer CD accounts into her teller drawer "to cover the thefts and balance her drawer."

Edelweiss Home Health Care in Maple Grove, Minnesota, has reported to authorities that it was the victim of an apparent embezzlement of at least $500,000 perpetrated by one of its employees.  Developing...

Update (1/4/13): Lori Jo Mueller, 48, of Apple Valley, Minnesota, pleaded guilty to charges she embezzled approximately $840,000 from Edelweiss Home Health Care over a period of 6 years by issuing checks to herself.  Mueller also caused more than $631,000 in fraudulent reimbursement claims from Medica, a medical insurance company.  Turns out Mueller, then known as Lori Jo Peterson, was previously convicted of financial frauds in 1992 and 1997, according to media reports.



Steven Byron Tisdale

Steven Byron Tisdale, 43, of Pfafftown, North Carolina, has been charged with embezzling more than $100,000 from the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center where he had been employed as manager of the commercial insurance collection division for 17 years.  Tisdale reportedly issued 219 checks from an insurance reimbursement account to himself worth $114,002 over a period of more than a year, from January 1, 2011 to April 1, 2012.

Update (4/4/13): Tisdale, now 44, was arrested in Las Vegas, Nevada after being a fugitive from justice.  He now faces murder charges in the death of his domestic partner, Robert B. Tisdale, 52, whose body was found in their Pfafftown home.

Brian P. Mularski, believed to be 37, of Bayside, Wisconsin has been charged with embezzling more than $737,000 from the law firm of Eisenberg, Riley & Zimmerman where he had been employed as an attorney.  According to prosecutors, over a period of nearly 3 years, from March 2006 through January 2009, Mularski deposited insurance payments into "the defendant's personal account at U.S. Bank" in the name of "Mularski Law Office."  He has reportedly repaid about $240,000 of the funds he embezzled.  Mularski has had his law license revoked. 

Update (10/25/12): Mularski pleaded guilty to one count of felony embezzlement.
Update (1/16/13): Mularski was sentenced to one year of work-release.

Deborah Shaw, believed to be 51, of Marshall County, Mississippi, has been charged with three federal counts of embezzlement for allegedly misappropriating more than $108,000 from a special benefit account for a child shot and left for dead in 2006, held at Merchants and Farmers Bank in Holly Springs, where Shaw had been a bank executive.  Court records revealed that Shaw is accused of transferring funds from the benefit account to other accounts that she owned or controlled. She is also alleged to have embezzled an additional $125,000 from the bank itself.


Jada W. Atkinson

April F. Winch

Jada Willoughby Atkinson, 42, and April Ferris Winch, 48, both of Boiling Springs Lake, North Carolina, have been charged with embezzling $115,000 from the Tidewater Dental Office in Calabash where they had been employed.  Specifically, the two were charged with embezzlement greater than or equal to $100,000, felony conspiracy and confinement.

Katherine Haddaway, believed to be 38, of Easton, Maryland, has been found guilty of 37 counts of embezzlement in connection with her misappropriation of more than a total of $335,000 from Easton Jet Services Inc., Omni Jet International Jet Trading Inc., and Four-Ten Holdings Corporation, three companies owned by Wayne Hilmer.   Haddaway, who is believed to have worked for Hilmer as a bookkeeper, stole the funds over a period of about 3 years.  Haddaway employed several different embezzlement schemes, including forging checks, ordering extra payroll checks by direct deposit from Automatic Data Processing payroll company, and paying her credit card bill some 270 times online using the company account.

Update (9/22/12): Haddaway was sentenced to a net 14 years in prison.