PHILADELPHIA—Laura Wayne, 38, of Coatesville, Pennsylvania, was sentenced today to 36 months in prison for seven counts of wire fraud in connection with her embezzlement from Comcast employee retirement accounts. Wayne was an administrator of the employee retirement accounts at the Comcast Corporation when she created dummy retirement accounts and used those accounts to defraud Comcast of approximately $124,876.

From April of 2013 through January of 2014, Wayne used the names, dates of birth, and social security numbers of her family and relatives, to create what appeared to be 401(k) retirement accounts managed by Fidelity Company for the benefit of Comcast employees. She used her access to Comcast records to fraudulently fund each account for the maximum amount allowed by law and to obtain the matching funds from Comcast. She then created fake user names and passwords to transfer all of the money in the dummy Fidelity accounts to her personal bank accounts. When she was caught, she lied to both Comcast and an FBI agent and falsely claimed that she had paid the money back.

In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Court Judge Wendy Beetlestone ordered restitution in the amount of $124,876, three years of supervised release, restitution, and a $700 special assessment.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Laurie Magid.