CHARLOTTE, NC (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, Kristin Turney, 54, of Catawba, South Carolina, ran a scheme to defraud her employer, a Charlotte company, between 2016 and 2023. She was in charge of operations the company. financial matters, including bank accounts, payroll, accounts payable and receivable, and tax returns.

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

Turney generally spent the funds to pay for personal expenses, which 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.

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