Norman Woman to Serve 30 Months in Prison and Pay $1.2 Million in Restitution for Embezzlement and Not Filing Income Tax Return

OKLAHOMA CITY—PAMELA J. WHITSON, of Norman, Oklahoma, was sentenced yesterday to serve 30 months in federal prison for forging a check and failing to file a federal income tax return, in connection with her embezzling more than $960,000 from an Oklahoma City oil and gas company, announced Sanford C. Coats, United States Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma.

At her plea hearing on July 7, 2011, Whitson admitted that she worked for several years as the office manager at an oil and gas company in Oklahoma City. From 2002 through 2008, she forged the signatures of authorized signers on checks drawn on the oil and gas company’s accounts. Whitson admitted she wrote many of the forged checks payable to herself or to cash, and used the embezzled funds mostly for gambling. At the plea hearing, Whitson also admitted that she did not claim any of the embezzled funds as income on tax returns. She pled guilty to forging a check and not filing an income tax return for the 2007 calendar year.

Yesterday, Chief United States District Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange sentenced Whitson to 30 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release. Whitson was also ordered to pay $965,333.47 in restitution to the local oil and gas company, and $252,293.27 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service.

These charges are the result of an investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Criminal Investigation Division of the Internal Revenue Service. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris M. Stephens.