Bookkeeper stole $1M from SC business: feds

Karen Rhett was the bookkeeper at a South Carolina actual estate agency for the superior part of 25 several years, according to federal court files.

She was also embezzling from it, prosecutors said.

A federal judge sentenced the 59-12 months-aged to three a long time in jail on Monday, April 4, after she pleaded responsible to felony rates very last calendar year. She was also ordered to commit three years on supervised launch and pay restitution.

Rhett’s defense attorney did not right away react to McClatchy News’ request for remark on April 6. But he mentioned in court docket filings that she took complete responsibility for the theft immediately after the FBI confirmed up at her property in Mount Pleasurable, just outdoors of Charleston, in 2020.

“Painfully, and with deep sorrow, she admits that she took advantage of her position of have confidence in as a bookkeeper,” explained George Rutledge DuRant, who represented Rhett. “She admits that her theft was enduring and commenced very long ago with a comparatively modest volume of money. It escalated with time. The a lot more she stole, the tougher it turned to stop.”

According to courtroom files, Rhett labored for Simmons Realty Organization, a genuine estate company operate by David and Elizabeth Simmons.

“It took three lengthy decades of cumbersome investigative work by the spouse and children and a forensic accountant (former IRS Particular Agent) to uncover this complex and elaborate fraudulent plan,” Bart Daniel, who represented the Simmons, informed McClatchy News in a assertion. “The Simmons Relatives is relieved that justice has last but not least been served.”

Prosecutors claimed Rhett oversaw the company’s accounting and enterprise records and was “in a position of trust” when she allegedly commenced siphoning off cash.

She is accused of transferring dollars to herself, usually moving the money amongst other company entities right before it sooner or later landed in her account. Rhett also manufactured up small business invoices for bogus costs and wrote checks to herself before recording the payments as authentic, the government explained.

The Simmons inevitably fired her, and FBI brokers visited Rhett at property in July 2020, court docket documents condition.

According to her attorney, Rhett confessed to the embezzlement the pursuing month and started cooperating with federal investigators.

“It need to be comprehended that Karen produced the decision to confess solely on her own and promptly, in just just one 7 days of the F.B.I. knocking on the door of her property,” her attorney reported.

Rhett sold the 4,000-square-foot home she shared with her spouse and daughter for $982,000 in December 2020, in accordance to true estate listings. Her attorney said she wrote a test for restitution totaling $640,633 and submitted it to the court in January 2021.

Rhett was billed by legal information and pleaded responsible to expenses of wire fraud and making untrue statements, court documents demonstrate. Her attorney said she was fired from her new job at a holistic nourishment retail store when news of the responsible plea broke in April 2021.

Rhett subsequently started a organization, Cupcake Bouquets by Karen, through which she bakes and sells “delicious and creative, largely floral in design, cupcakes,” her law firm mentioned.

From August 2021 to February 2022, he claimed, she has marketed $3,648 well worth of cupcakes.

“Karen is convinced that Cupcake Bouquets by Karen, LLC would afford her the suggests by which she can make significant payments toward complete restitution,” her legal professional reported in sentencing paperwork. “In conditions of using on new orders and making this small business as it stands now, Karen has been careful not to get on too several new orders or to improve way too speedily as her imminent potential is, at finest, unsure.”

Rhett’s attorney had asked the judge to sentence her to a period of time of household confinement, pointing in section to her struggles with melancholy considering the fact that the fees came to light and a latest analysis of Fibromyalgia.

He also explained it is important for Rhett to be household with her 21-yr-previous daughter, who has reportedly struggled with her have psychological overall health following a small-lived career as a singer-songwriter. In accordance to sentencing files, her daughter previously sang at “various east coastline college gymnasiums and functionality halls with a information in opposition to bullying” as a teen.

Rhett submitted 6 letters of help penned by her therapist and different household users also contacting for leniency.

“Karen has endured the repercussions of a self-imposed sentence, shame and guilt prior to her pals and family members and the complete neighborhood,” her attorney said. “She has endured the loss of virtually her every single possession and she has experienced the continual agony of dark depression. She has been punished severely currently.”

At sentencing, the judge proposed Rhett provide her prison sentence at FPC Alderson in West Virginia so that she can obtain health-related therapy. After she is introduced, the choose barred her from possessing any make contact with with the victims.

The total of restitution she owes is mentioned as “TBD” in the courtroom docket.

This tale was at first released April 6, 2022 6:33 PM.