York County woman pleads guilty to embezzling $1.7 million from Charlotte employer: DOJ

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) – A York County woman pleaded guilty Friday to embezzling more than $1.7 million from her employer.

According to court documents from the U.S. Attorney's Office, 54-year-old Kristin Turney, of Catawba, South Carolina, executed a scheme to defraud her employer, a Charlotte-based company, between 2016 and 2023. She was in charge of the company's financial matters, including bank accounts, payroll, accounts payables and receivables and tax filings.

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Court officials say Turney caused at least 1,000 fraudulent and unauthorized deposits totaling more than $1.7 million to be made from the bank account of the victim company to her account. She then covered up the fraud by, among other things, reportedly making false accounting entries in the company's books and records, providing false information to the company's tax return preparer, and giving false information to the company's owner and employees.

Turney generally spent the funds to pay for personal expenses, that included hundreds of thousands of dollars in shopping trips, car payments, mortgage payments, tuition payments, and vacation expenses.

The wire fraud charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Caryn Finley of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Charlotte is prosecuting the case.