The former office manager and in-house bookkeeper of a small Milwaukee business has been sentenced to 33 months in federal prison after she committed wire fraud and several tax offenses.
Emilee Rueda, age 42, was sentenced this week after embezzling over $650,000 from her place of work over the course of several months.
From September 2018 through February 2020, an indictment in the case states Rueda embezzled the money from her employer, an unnamed Milwaukee company.
In September 2018, Rueda linked a credit card belonging to the company to her personal PayPal account as a funding source, according to the indictment. In January 2019, she also allegedly linked the company’s checking account to her PayPal account.
Using the company’s funds, Rueda made several unauthorized purchases via eBay and other websites. Those purchases included jewelry, antiques, dolls, and other items, according to the complaint. Amongst her priciest purchases was a “Fabergé Russian Silver Enamel Hinged Pill Box” worth $3,024. Rueda allegedly had these purchases shipped to her home.
The complaint states Rueda then made “sham expense entries” in QuickBooks to conceal the money she had embezzled.
When preparing her federal tax returns for 2018, 2019 and 2020, Rueda did not declare any of the embezzled funds as income.
"Rueda took advantage of her position of trust and made false entries into the business’s books to hide the theft, which was only uncovered after an employee’s paycheck bounced," according to a press release from the Wisconsin Department of Justice.
This case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation office and the West Milwaukee Police Department.
“The sentence imposed in this case reflects the substantial financial loss caused by the defendant’s fraud, the harm to all taxpayers caused by her filing of false tax returns, and the sense of betrayal felt by the victim company and its owners, who had trusted and supported the defendant,” said Gregory Haanstad, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. “I commend the hard work of the officers and agents who worked hard to hold the defendant accountable for her actions.”
