Former Employee Charged With Embezzling Over $2.5 Million From Marietta, Ga., Hair Products Company

ATLANTA - Veria Fields, a former employee of Bronner Bros., Inc., has been arraigned on nine counts of mail fraud relating to theft from her former employer.   Fields was indicted by a federal grand jury on March 4, 2015.

“Small businesses depend on their finance and accounting personnel to safeguard the financial health of the company and its employees,” said Acting U.S. Attorney John Horn.  “This defendant is charged with violating this trust and helped herself to millions of the company’s dollars over several years.”

J. Britt Johnson, Special Agent in Charge, FBI Atlanta Field Office, stated: “The loss amount in this case is significant and, with the federal indictment and arrest of Ms. Fields, the former Accounts Receivable Manager at the victim company, this matter will have its day in court.”

According to Acting U.S. Attorney Horn, the charges and other information presented in court: Fields was the Accounts Receivable Manager for Bronner Bros. Inc., a wholesaler of African American hair care products headquartered in Marietta, Georgia, Fields also informally performed customer service functions for the company.  From 2006 through 2010, Fields allegedly embezzled over $2.5 million from Bronner Bros. by offering customers unauthorized discounts of five to ten percent in exchange for cash payments made directly to her.  Thereafter, customers continued to submit orders with the expectation that they would receive the cash discounts promised by the defendant.  To conceal the unauthorized discounts and her theft from Bronner Bros, Fields allegedly used her position as Accounts Receivable Manager to create false and fraudulent accounting entries. 

Fields, 54, of Atlanta, Georgia, was arraigned on March 19, 2015, before U.S. Chief Magistrate Judge Janet F. King. 

Members of the public are reminded that the indictment contains only charges. The defendant is presumed innocent of the charges and it will be the government's burden to prove the defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.

This case is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Assistant United States Attorney Bernita B. Malloy is prosecuting the case.

For further information please contact the U.S. Attorney’s Public Affairs Office at USAGAN.PressEmails@usdoj.gov or (404) 581-6016.  The Internet address for the home page for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia Atlanta Division is http://www.justice.gov/usao/gan/.