Crown Point Woman Sentenced to 46 Months in Prison And Ordered to Repay Restitution

HAMMOND – Lorraine Duchscher, 50 years old, of Crown Point, Indiana, was sentenced by United States District Court Judge Philip P. Simon after pleading guilty to three counts of wire fraud.

Duchscher was sentenced to 46 months in prison followed by 2 years of supervised release and was ordered to pay $490,958.35 in restitution to the victim of the offense.

According to documents in the case, between March 2017 and December 2019, Duchscher worked as an office manager for a company in Crown Point. In this capacity, she had unsupervised access to the company’s bank account, financial records and payroll information. For almost three years, Duchscher made regular adjustments to her paychecks and gave herself additional pay to which she was not entitled. She also wrote over 100 unauthorized business checks to herself and another employee, which were cashed at local banks and currency exchanges. Over the course of the scheme, Duchscher defrauded the company out of $490,958.35; money she used to fund her lavish lifestyle which included the purchase of airline tickets, rental cars, vacation home rentals, entertainment, and cosmetic procedures, among other things.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Jennifer Chang and Steven J. Lupa.