Hamden Woman Admits Embezzling More Than $150,000 from Stamford Employer

David B. Fein, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that RENEE BRAGG, 42, of Hamden, pleaded guilty today before Senior United States District Judge Warren W. Eginton in Bridgeport to one count of wire fraud stemming from her embezzlement of more than $150,000 from her employer.

According to court documents and statements made in court, BRAGG was employed as a payroll specialist at Omega Engineering, Inc. (“Omega”) in Stamford. The employees at Omega submitted weekly written time sheets to payroll specialists, including BRAGG, who assembled a spreadsheet of that information and emailed it to an out-of-state payroll company for processing. For several years, BRAGG engaged in a scheme to defraud Omega by entering false hourly information in the payroll spreadsheet that inflated her own hours worked, which resulted in additional pay to her of between $500 and $3,313 per week. In order to conceal the falsified payroll spreadsheets, BRAGG manipulated the composite report of Omega’s total payroll so that it would reflect BRAGG’s normal pay amounts and not include the additional pay.

Between August 2006 and July 2010, BRAGG falsified the payroll spreadsheet for 88 different weeks. During that time, she overpaid herself approximately $150,689 in salary. Omega also paid $11,528 in additional Social Security and Medicare taxes.

Judge Eginton has scheduled sentencing for September 16, 2011, at which time BRAGG faces a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years and a fine of up to $324,432. BRAGG also has agreed to pay restitution in the amount of $162,216.

This matter was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher W. Schmeisser.