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Date: 05-05-2023
Case Style:
Case Number: 1:22-cr-00130
Judge: Tanya Walton Pratt
Court: United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana (Marion County)
Plaintiff's Attorney: United States Attorney’s Office in Indianapolis
Defendant's Attorney:
Description: Indianapolis, Indiana criminal defense lawyer represented Defendant charged with wire fraud.
From 2012 to December of 2021, Tammy Scudder, age 52, from Shelbyville, Indiana, devised and participated in a scheme to defraud her employer of more than $600,000. Scudder served as the Controller for a company located in Shelbyville, Indiana for nine years. As Controller, Scudder was the company’s top accountant and maintained its accounting ledgers, managed payroll, and had access to online bank accounts. Scudder also had access to the company’s accounting software, which she used to generate checks in Plymate’s name.
Scudder abused her position of trust as Controller to exploit a vulnerability in the company’s accounting system. Scudder knew that the company’s Group Health Plan bank account was difficult to double-check because it was funded based upon the total amount of the weekly claims on the list it received from another company, rather than by each claim individually. Scudder accessed the victim company’s accounting software to generate and print a company check to herself, signed using another employee’s signature stamp. After Scudder printed the check, she concealed the theft by altering and falsifying the victim company’s accounting records.
Scudder used the stolen money to take vacations, pay off personal debts, fund her children’s educational expenditures, and by make improvements to her Shelbyville residence. Between February 2, 2012, and December 17, 2020, Scudder generated 154 false and fraudulent checks totaling $693,708.75.
United States Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, Zachary A Myers, Herbert J. Stapleton, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Indianapolis Field Office made the announcement.
“The defendant abused her position of trust and stole hundreds of thousands of dollars intended to pay for the health care of her colleagues,” said U.S. Attorney, Zachary A. Myers. “This incessant greed, spanning nearly a decade, has been quashed thanks to our dedicated partners at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Our office will continue to identify and prosecute individuals who scheme and steal to satisfy their own greed.”
The FBI investigated this case. The sentence was imposed by Chief U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Walton Pratt. Judge Pratt also ordered that Scudder by supervised by the U.S. Probation Office for 2 years following her release from federal prison and pay the full $693,708 in restitution to Plymate.
U.S. Attorney Myers thanked Assistant United States Attorney Tiffany J. Preston, who prosecuted this case.
Outcome: Defendant was sentenced to two years in prison.
Plaintiff's Experts:
Defendant's Experts:
Comments: