Evansville woman sentenced to prison for wire fraud
Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
A 47-year-old employee and part-owner of an Evansville property management company has been sentenced to five years in prison for what authorities say was a wire fraud scheme that bilked the business out of nearly $2 million.
Marcie Jean Doty also has been ordered to pay nearly $2.6 million in restitution after pleading guilty to wire fraud, failure to file tax returns, and filing false tax returns, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana.
Authorities say that from May 2017 to June 2022, Doty made 99 unauthorized bank transfers and wrote 279 unauthorized checks to herself, totaling about $1.8 million, while she worked as the business’s operations manager. She entered false information into the business accounting software that indicated the money was moving between business accounts.
Doty also used some of the money she stole to make payments toward a 25% equity share in the business, authorities say.
The accusations also included failing to report the income from the fraud and failing to file tax returns for years 2021 and 2022.
“Through the defendant’s egregious scheme, she used her position of trust to lie, cheat, and steal from her employer and the government — helping herself to millions and cooking the books to hide the evidence,” John Childress, acting United States attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, said in a news release. “Fraud and embezzlement can have devastating effects on both individual victims and companies. The federal prison sentence imposed here demonstrates that those who commit financial crimes will pay a serious price.”
In addition to the prison term and restitution, U.S. District Judge Richard L. Young sentenced Doty to three years of supervised release.