Bookkeeper Sentenced to Prison for Fraud and Aggravated Identity Theft

BIRMINGHAM—U.S. District Judge C. Lynwood Smith, Jr. this week sentenced an Etowah County woman to nearly five years in prison for stealing more than $900,000 from her former employer through fraud and identity theft, announced U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance and FBI Special Agent in Charge Richard D. Schwein, Jr.

Judge Smith ordered Peggy McGlaughn, 68, to serve 57 months in prison, 33 months for the fraud, and 24 months for the aggravated identity theft, to be served consecutively to the fraud sentence. McGlaughn also must serve five years’ supervised release after completing her prison sentence and must pay $933,079 in restitution to Bob Roberts & Company, the Etowah County construction company where she worked as bookkeeper and office manager for 24 years. She will be credited $60,750 toward that restitution for two vehicles seized through asset forfeiture proceedings by the FBI.

McGlaughn is scheduled to report to prison in June. She pleaded guilty to the fraud and aggravated identity theft charges in 2011. According to court records, she carried out her scheme to steal from her employer as follows:

From October 2003 until February 2010, McGlaughn obtained the signatures of Bob Roberts & Company principals on company checks and told the principals those checks would be used to pay for company expenses. McGlaughn would make the checks out to another company employee and, unbeknownst to that employee, forge his endorsement on the checks and then present them to a local bank for payment. During the course of her scheme, McGlaughn forged endorsements and cashed more than 100 of the company’s checks, keeping the money for herself.

The FBI investigated the case, and it was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Alabama.