President of Medical Supply Company Pleads Guilty to Wire Fraud
| U.S. Attorney’s Office January 21, 2010 |
CINCINNATI—Barbara Rauen, 52, of Crestview Hills, Kentucky pleaded guilty in United States District Court here to one count of wire fraud for embezzling more than $300,000 from Havel's, a specialty medical supplies distributor in Cincinnati. Rauen was president, chief executive officer, and chief financial officer of the company from 1999 until she left the company on August 20, 2008.
Carter M. Stewart, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, and Keith L. Bennett, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), announced the plea entered yesterday before Senior U.S. District Judge Herman J. Weber.
According to the a statement of facts filed with the plea, Rauen began embezzling funds from the company in about November 2002 by issuing company checks to herself and depositing them into her personal bank account. Rauen also issued company checks to creditors to pay off various personal debts. In order to hide these transactions and cover up the embezzlement, she falsified the company’s check registry so that the unauthorized checks appeared to be issued to a true associated business, or they were not recorded at all.
As a result of the scheme to defraud, Rauen obtained approximately $307,566.81 to which she was not entitled. In execution of the scheme and in furtherance of it, Rauen used interstate wire communications by using online banking services and making online payments to reduce the balance owed on her personal credit card and other personal accounts. One such transaction occurred on November 28, 2007, when defendant Rauen made an unauthorized online payment from Havel’s company account to her personal credit card in the amount of $19,982.00.
Wire fraud is punishable by a maximum sentence of 20 years. Judge Weber scheduled a sentencing hearing for Rauen for April 15, 2010 at 9 a.m.
Stewart commended the FBI agents who conducted the investigation and Assistant U.S. Attorney Anne Porter, who is prosecuting the case.