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The former executive assistant at a Waltham-based technology company has agreed to plead guilty in connection with a bank fraud and embezzlement scheme that netted over $3 million.
Shivani Patel, 38, of Vineyard Haven, was charged with bank fraud, money laundering and filing false tax returns. According to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office in Boston, Patel was the executive assistant to the company’s CFO. Her duties included retrieving incoming mail containing customer checks made payable to her employer, recording the checks into the payment system and depositing the checks into her employer’s bank account.
From at least February 2012 through July 2017, Patel embezzled approximately $3 million for her personal use. In February 2012, Patel opened a business banking account in a name nearly identical to that of her then-employer by adding an “s” to the end to the end of the name. Patel took customer checks payable to her employer from the mail, deposited those checks into the bank account and concealed her embezzlement by making false entries in her employer’s billing system. To disguise and conceal the nature of these funds, Patel funneled this money through multiple bank accounts.
Patel also filed income tax returns for the tax years 2012 through 2016 in which she intentionally underreported her income by failing to disclose the money she had stolen from her employer.
A plea hearing has not yet been scheduled. According to the terms of the plea agreement, the government will recommend a sentence of 57 months in prison, three years of supervised release, a fine between $20,000 and $200,000, restitution and forfeiture.
The charge of bank fraud provides for a sentence of up to 30 years in prison, five years of supervised release, a fine of $1 million, restitution and forfeiture. The charge of money laundering provides for a sentence of up to 20 years, three years of supervised release, a fine of $500,000 or twice the amount involved in the transaction, restitution and forfeiture. The charge of filing false tax returns provides for a sentence of up to three years in prison, one year of supervised release, a fine of $100,000, restitution and forfeiture.
