The former bookkeeper for a trucking company has admitted to stealing nearly $3.5 million from the carrier. She had been embezzling funds for more than 15 years before she was caught and sentenced to 63 months in prison.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Central District of California where she was prosecuted, Patricia A. Francisco embezzled funds from the company in three primary ways.
The first way was the simplest – she stole company checks, made them out to “cash,” and signed them using a stolen stamp of her boss’s signature. She would then cash the checks at the local bank and keep the money for herself. Second, she would siphon out a portion of the money intended to pay for services or products from legitimate vendors and keep it for herself. The final way was to create bogus expense reports for other employees, the money for which would then be deposited into her own account.
Any one of these would have been easily detected by a competent company bookkeeper, the only problem was that she was the one who was supposed to be on the lookout for such illegal activities.
Francisco wasn’t shy about spending her ill-gotten gains either. She used the money for expensive cars and approximately $100,000 worth of jewelry, as well as plastic surgery, vacations, clothing, shoes, and handbags. Additionally she used $300,000 for a down payment on a house, an additional $50,000 to renovate it, and made a $25,000 down payment on a condo – all using the stolen money.
When asked by FBI investigators why she had stolen the money, she replied that “she wanted a better life,” but in their sentencing memorandum, prosecutors put it more simply: “Greed.”
When confronted with her crimes, she pled guilty to four counts of wire fraud and was sentenced to 63 months in prison and ordered to repay the money she had stolen.
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Source: gobytrucknews, truckinginfo
63 months that’s it really. Since she spent the money none will be paid back. We catch a kid three times with pot he gets life. We are screwed up on our priorities in this country stealing 3mil that should be life.
That’s a myth…I have never seen a kid in Prison Just for Pot ….much less for life…
Prison is full of career criminals…
Sign me up….if I could get away with 63 months for 3.5 million…..ahh….”HELLO!”
I would have given the money away to the men that should be earning 75-100k a year in this country though….the DRIVERS. Driving over-the-road is the touchest job, next to workin’ an
old rig that can be offered…it’s lonely, dirty, thankless…..and no one gives a shit about where their
stuff comes from until they “really think about it”.
How can driver’s be making such a paltry salary? The wages haven’t increased in 30 years…..unfathomable, unfair, unrepentant truck companies don’t give a shit….a lot like the WalMart family……for about the same pay!
Who says crime doesn’t pay. 3.5 million for 63 months, comes out to over $13,000 a week. Where do I send my resume?
This is why I got out of trucking all companies suck
Not All…..but a large majority of Companies need to be Scrutinized and “regulated” on “Pay scales”. Only then “Professional Drivers shortage” will be a thing of the Past. (( I too “ran away from trucking” after 19 years..OTR and became a Bodyguard, (great pay)…))
Yes they do!
Have to like the graphic of the cookie-snatch. The only thing missing is the fingernail polish.
Let me get this straight…She was buying expensive cars, jewelry, houses, and taking vacations on a bookkeepers’ salary, and no one became suspicious?? Maybe she had a good cover story, like a rich husband.
Really! How did no one get the least bit suspicious? Maybe she used her female “charms and persuasions” to keep suspecting people quiet?
Did anyone notice the line in the article that states ‘over a period of more than 15 years’? That’s a long time for the higher-ups to be asleep. As I’ve said before, our industry attracts thieves, liars, and crooks like a carcass draws vultures. My conclusion: there must be more money in transportation than the poor struggling companies claim.
That’s why us drivers can barely make ends meet today. Until we stand united nothing will ever change. Companies will never give a hoot about us.
Damn good business if I can steal over 3 Million and no one eve notice it gone???
I agree 63 months is only five years…heck a lot of people would gladly spend 5 years and get out with that much dough.
Lowest category of Human existence, and what a joke for her “punishment”. I’d like to be able to say she has to live with the guilt…but there is no guilt associated with with low life scum. Here she was, living high on the hog, while the drivers earned every dollar twice over. Sickening. Now the public gets to pay her way for the next six years at over a 100k per year. How’s that for adding insult to the story? Sure hope her ill-begotten assets are liquidated in a hurry. Rather ship her over to IS for a well deserved punishment.