KANSAS CITY, MO—Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Liberty, Missouri husband and wife were sentenced in federal court today for running a nearly $2.7 million embezzlement and check kiting scheme and for filing a false tax return.

Laura Dejong, 55, and her husband, Craig Dejong, 56, both of Liberty, were sentenced in separate appearances before U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple. Laura Dejong was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison without parole. She was taken into custody immediately after today’s hearing. Craig Dejong was sentenced to two years and six months in federal prison without parole. The court also ordered the Dejongs to pay a total of $3,300,718 in restitution to their victims, including $2,679,227 to Kansas City Screw Products Inc., $482,711 to the Internal Revenue Service, and $138,780 to two financial institutions.

On June 18, 2013, Laura Dejong pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud, and both Dejongs pleaded guilty to one count of filing a false tax return.

Laura Dejong admitted that she embezzled $2,679,227 from her employer, Kansas City Screw Products Inc., from January 2003 to November 2011. Kansas City Screw Products is a family-owned and -operated metal fabrication business in Kansas City. Laura Dejong, who was employed as a secretary and bookkeeper for approximately 23 years, forged checks drawn on two company bank accounts.

Laura Dejong also engaged in a check kiting scheme between the company’s two banks in order to falsely inflate the company’s bank account balances, thereby increasing the amount of money she could embezzle. Her check kiting began in late June 2011. The total amount of checks written by Laura Dejong to cause the check kite increased from $44,000 in June 2011 to $847,000 in November 2011. The total loss from the check kite to Central Bank was $97,015.

According to court documents, significant gambling activity was identified for the Dejongs, totaling approximately $4.5 million from January 2002 to December 2011. The majority of the Dejongs’ gambling was at slot machines.

Records indicate that the Dejongs took at least eight cruises and spent more than $100,000 on payments for cruises, vacations, and airfare between 2005 and 2011. During the time of the embezzlement scheme, according to court documents, the Dejongs used the stolen money to purchase a 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe, a 2009 Honda Accord, a 1997 Crownline boat (20-foot fiberglass runabout), a 1997 Prestige boat trailer, a 1985 Chevrolet RV/motor-home (now a KC Chiefs party bus), a 2008 Jayco travel trailer, four Ameriprise Brokerage accounts, four Kansas Speedway season tickets (for passholder seats, parking passes, and track passes), four Kansas City Chiefs Club Level season tickets and parking passes, membership to the Chiefs Wolfpack Club (an exclusive members-only facility), and their residence.

As part of their pleas, the Dejongs signed a stipulation forfeiting their home in Liberty and all the above-listed property. The forfeited funds will be used to provide restitution to the victims of their crimes.

The Dejongs admitted that they filed joint tax returns for tax years 2005-2010 but did not declare any of the embezzled money as income. During this time, Laura Dejong’s gross annual salary at Kansas City Screw Products ranged from $22,752 to $33,333. Craig Dejong was unemployed for four years and listed no income for the two years in which he claimed to be employed as a computer programmer.

As a result of filing false tax returns in those six years, the Dejongs owe the Internal Revenue Service a total of approximately $482,711.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jane Pansing Brown. It was investigated by the FBI and IRS-Criminal Investigation.