California Woman Sought In $1.86 Million Embezzlement; Used Alias To Originally Get Job

From the Orange County Register on 2/20/2015:

The FBI is searching for a fugitive accused of embezzling $1.86 million from her employer under a false name last year, the agency said in a criminal complaint file Feb. 11.

From May 2013 to September 2014, investigators said Alma Edith Letona, using the name Olga Figueroa, used her position as a payroll tax account at Roth Staffing Companies in Orange to divert company funds into a personal bank account.

Most of the deposit amounts were in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, the complaint said. Letona used the stolen money to purchase two Lake Forest properties - one in her own name. The United States Attorney's Office has since filed to take control of the properties.

Letona was employed at Roth from March 2013 to October 2014. She was fired because of attendance and time card issues, the complaint said.

Two months after being let go, the company discovered 10 unauthorized wire transfers made to a Bank of America account in the name of Roth's third-party payroll processing service.

Letona opened the account in September 2014 under Andrea Elizabeth Letona, and put herself as the signatory.

In addition, she took 200 checks intended for employees hired by Roth and deposited them into a Navy Federal Credit Union account. The checks were eventually reissued to the right employees.

Investigators found out Letona's real name after examining a personal check she provided Roth for direct deposit information. Her real name was scratched out, and the false name was handwritten above. Examining the check under a light revealed the scratched-out name.

Letona's alias include Olga Iris Figueroa, Alma Olga Iris Manjama and Olga Iris Manjang.

Anyone with information as to Letona's whereabouts should contact the FBI at 714-939-8699.

Wyoming Woman, Convicted Of Embezzling "Hundreds Of Thousands," Still At Large

Julie A. (Jacobsen) Deliramich, 57, of Gillette, Wyoming, who was found guilty on 10 felony counts of forgery and embezzlement last Friday, is still at large. As a bookkeeper with the Fox Park Homeowners Association from 1998 to 2003, Deliramich reportedly embezzled "hundreds of thousands" of dollars through forged signatures and a company bank account. She was also sentenced to 18 months in federal prison on tax evasion charges in 2006. Deliramich skipped her verdict reading and is currently being sought for sentencing. She faces up to 10 years in prison on each of the 10 counts.

Read the story here and here.

Update (9/22/10) Deliramich was arrested last night in Washington State nearly a year after her conviction on 10 felony counts related to her embezzlement of "hundreds of thousands" of dollars from the Fox Park Homeowners Association in Gillette, Wyoming. Prosecutors put the amount stolen at about $398,000. Apparently this is not her first felony conviction - Deliramich had previously pleaded guilty to tax evasion and spent 14 months in federal prison.

Fugitive Woman Arrested 26 Years After Embezzlement

Barbara Eileen Kurz, 70, of Mesa, Arizona, was arrested yesterday at her home 26 years after she disappeared amidst an investigation into her allegedly embezzling $106,000 from the Tri-City Medical Credit Union where she had been employed. Kurz' abandoned, partially burned car was found in Oregon after her disappearance. She reportedly left behind a husband and four children. According to investigators, Kurz had adopted an alias, Renee E. Fulgham, kept her true birthdate and had changed her social security number by one digit. She had allegedly robbed the safe at the credit union on Valentines Day, 1983. She is being held on a $500,000 bond.

Read the story here and here.

South Carolina Attorney Sentenced For Stealing Client Funds

Michael Timothy Jordan, 45, a real estate attorney from Charleston, South Carolina, was sentenced December 2nd to 25 months in prison, on top of the 11 months house arrest and 5 month in jail already served, for bilking a client out of some $2.35 million. He was also ordered to pay $1.6 million in restitution. Jordan plead guilty to one count of wire fraud earlier this year. Authorities say Jordan was attempting to stage his own disappearance by going missing after a solo boat ride deep into the South Carolina marshes. He was arrested on August 3, 2007 when he was caught at the US-Canadian border near Buffalo, New York. Prosecutors say he began looting client trust accounts by transferring funds into his own trust account in or about August 2003. When a client hired him to handle a $2.3 million real estate transaction in early August 2007, prosecutors say he took the money, in part to pay back old clients he had previously stolen from.

Read the story here, here, here and here.