A Milwaukee woman has been charged with six different counts of fraud after she allegedly used money from her employer to make thousands of dollars in personal purchases.
Emilee Rueda allegedly embezzled over $600,000 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. She was office manager at the company during this period.
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.
Upon conviction of one or more of the fraud offenses filed against her, Rueda will be ordered to forfeit any property she obtained using embezzled funds and could be ordered to pay back a sum of money to repay her former employer.
