A jury found an Arkansas office manager guilty of 25 embezzlement-related charges Wednesday after she stole over $600,000 from a group of doctors who employed her, according to a news release.
Lynn Alisa Espejo, 52, of Sherwood was convicted of 15 counts of wire fraud, six counts of money laundering and four counts of willfully making and subscribing a false income tax return, a news release from U.S. Attorney Christopher Thyer said.
Espejo was accused of stealing from a group of doctors while employed as an office manager for Practice Management Services, Inc. and Blanford Medical Services, Inc. from March 2007 until October 2010, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette previously reported.
Espejo’s employers managed business expenses for Little Rock doctors, Thyer said. According to the release, Espejo wired around $611,099 from her employers to her bank account during her time with the companies.
In the release, Thyer said Espejo took steps to misrepresent the money transfers in records and hide them from the doctors whose accounts she managed.
“The jury’s verdict is supported by the overwhelming evidence of guilt presented at trial through financial documents and the testimony of the victims of Ms. Espejo’s crimes,” the release states. “Lynn Espejo lied and cheated her employers out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, and today’s verdict makes clear that people who lie and steal will be held accountable.”
Espejo used a company debit card for personal expenses to buy items such as “snow crab, bacon, and popcorn balls, video gaming devices, school supplies and a trampoline,” the release said.
She was also found guilty of falsifying her income tax returns because she didn’t report the money she stole as income, according to the release.
Espejo has not yet been sentenced, but faces the possibility of decades in prison and thousands of dollars in fines, the release said.
