Ex-bookkeeper pleads guilty to embezzlement
recordnet.com | 11/8/08 | $824,000 | supsect: Nancy Mulkey | victim: ABF Farm Services, Inc.
A Stockton woman pleaded guilty in court Friday to embezzlement charges for taking $824,000 from ABF Farm Services Inc., north of Tracy, where she worked as the bookkeeper for the past decade.
Nancy Mulkey, 58, was sentenced to five years under a plea agreement with prosecutors that also requires her to explain what money she has left. She has to serve half of the sentence before she becomes eligible for release on parole.
Mulkey stood before San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Franklin Stephenson and admitted guilt to grand theft and falsifying corporate books. Stephenson ordered her back to court in January when she will likely be taken to prison. She is out of jail on a bail.
She fell under suspicion when ABF was downsizing and her position was eliminated. A bookkeeping service organizing financial records discovered that Mulkey falsified checks and paid off her personal credit cards with corporate checks.
Platt said Mulkey maintains she was not alone, but he would not say in an interview after the hearing who his client blames. Mulkey will have to pay restitution to ABF for the rest of her life, making payments after she has enough to live on, Platt said.
ABF cultivates 2,600 acres of crops, including walnuts, blueberries, winegrapes, alfalfa and tomatoes. The office is in the Delta islands north of Tracy and west of Lathrop.