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Press Release

Accountant pleads guilty to embezzling from employer

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Georgia

ATLANTA – Stantisha D. Kemp, an accounting manager who embezzled over $1.5 million dollars from her employer over a six-year period, has pleaded guilty to wire fraud.

“Accountants who lie, cheat, and steal threaten the financial solvency of businesses,” said U.S. Attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak. “Businesses must remain vigilant against fraud – all too often the perpetrator is someone they know.”

“For several years, Kemp took advantage of her position of managing the company’s payroll,” said David J. LeValley, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta. “Her guilty plea should send a message that no matter your position, you cannot profit illegally, or violate the trust of the company who hires you.”

According to U.S. Attorney Pak, the charges and other information presented in court: From 2007 to 2013, Kemp served as a payroll and accounting manager of an Atlanta-based company that developed medical technology (“the company”).  During that time, Kemp embezzled over $1.5 million dollars by falsifying payroll records sent to a third-party payroll processing company and instructing the payroll processor to direct deposit funds into her personal bank accounts on a monthly basis.  She falsely instructed the payroll processing company that a doctor with the initials Y.H.J. was a company employee, and she further instructed the payroll processing company to direct deposit Y.H.J.’s salary payments into her personal bank accounts.  She concealed her scheme by preparing a set of fabricated internal payroll records that made no mention of Y.H.J., who had not been employed by the company since early April 2010.  Nonetheless, Y.H.J.’s unauthorized salary payments were deposited into Kemp’s personal bank accounts, month after month, until February 2013.    

Sentencing for Stantisha Kemp, 40, of Atlanta, Georgia, is scheduled for June 11, 2018 at 11:00 a.m., before U.S. District Judge Steven C. Jones.  

This case is being investigated by the FBI.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kamal Ghali 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 U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia is http://www.justice.gov/usao-ndga

Updated March 28, 2018

Topic
Financial Fraud