Monroe Woman Sentenced to 71 Months in Federal Prison for Defrauding Employer Out of More Than $4.3 Million

CINCINNATI—Kimberly Prebles, 43, of Monroe, was sentenced to 71 months in federal prison here today on one count of wire fraud and one count of filing a false federal income tax return arising from her scheme to defraud her employer, Clark Western Building Systems, Inc. of Middletown of approximately $4,315,755 over a 10-year period.

Carter M. Stewart, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio; J. Mark Batts, Acting Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); and Tracey Warren, Acting Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS), announced the sentence delivered today by United States District Judge Susan Dlott.

According to court documents, Prebles worked at Clark Western from approximately 1999 until March 2009, most recently as an accounting manager in the accounts payable department. In or about June 1999, Prebles fraudulently opened a bank account in the name of one of the company’s vendors and began writing checks and making wire transfers from Clark Western’s accounts into the fraudulent account she controlled. She falsified company documents to conceal her embezzlement. She used the stolen money to pay personal expenses including the purchase of property, jewelry, travel, vehicles, and home improvements.

In addition to the wire fraud, Prebles also pleaded guilty to failing to report the income from the embezzlement scheme on her personal income tax returns from 2005 through 2008.

Judge Dlott ordered Prebles to pay restitution in the amount of $3,612,634.80 to the victims of her crime and restitution of $829,307.77 to the IRS. She must also serve three years of supervised release after her prison term.

Stewart commended the cooperative investigation by the FBI and IRS agents who investigated the case, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer C. Barry, who prosecuted the case.