Ex-bookkeeper at Norco company sentenced to prison for embezzlement
pe.com | 3/18/08 | GENE GHIOTTO
The former bookkeeper at a Norco company was sentenced to six years in state prison for embezzling $955,419 between 2004 and 2007.
Adele Whitaker, also known as Adele Scott, was sentenced Friday after pleading guilty to 10 counts of embezzlement, court records show. Ten counts of grand theft were dismissed. Whitaker, of Lake Arrowhead, had worked at the company about four years. Jesus Vivas, a co-defendant in the case, is being sought on an arrest warrant.
Whitaker, 52, had been accused of adding fictitious worker names to pay sheets for jobs the company worked on, court documents show. Whitaker would submit the sheets so checks could be cut. Later, she would get the checks and stamp an authorizing signature, then take the fraudulent checks and have an accomplice cash them.
The extent of the embezzling came to light after an altered payroll sheet was found in a trash can during an audit, court records show. A comparison of the amounts listed on the actual payroll sheets and the total amount paid showed how much money had been lost.
Vivas was identified as a suspect in the case when the owner of the store where the checks were cashed identified him as the person who had been cashing the GDT checks, court papers show. During questioning by a sheriff's detective, Whitaker admitted that she began embezzling money in October 2004 at the direction of her husband and continued until January 2007, court papers show. Her husband, a gang member, was killed in an unrelated incident in June 2005.