BATON ROUGE, LA—United States Attorney Walt Green announced today that LORI S. FRY, age 47, of Baton Rouge was sentenced by Chief U.S. District Judge Brian A. Jackson to 38 months in federal prison, following her convictions of nine counts of wire fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1343. FRY was also ordered to make restitution to her victims totaling approximately $465,444, and she will be required to forfeit the proceeds of her criminal scheme. Following her release from prison, FRY will be required to serve a term of supervised release.

FRY began working at inoLECT, an engineering firm in Baton Rouge, in 2006. From April of 2009 through August of 2012, while employed as a manager and bookkeeper at the firm, FRY diverted over 100 separate payments from the company’s bank account either to her own personal bank accounts or to pay her credit cards. FRY created false entries in the company’s internal records to advance and conceal her scheme. In total, FRY embezzled approximately $465,000 from the company’s bank account.

U.S. Attorney Walt Green stated, “My office will continue to make fraud and embezzlement prosecutions a high priority, as we work to hold corrupt insiders such as this defendant accountable for their crime. The defendant’s actions in the case were especially egregious in that she not only betrayed the trust placed in her by her employer, but that this was her second conviction for embezzlement. Criminal conduct like this undermines the financial health of honest businesses and can threaten jobs held by honest employees. The fact that the Court ordered the defendant immediately remanded into federal custody following today’s sentencing speaks to the serious nature of this offense. I appreciate the thorough investigation performed in this case by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”

This matter was investigated by the Baton Rouge office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Frederick A. Menner, Jr. and Special Assistant United States Attorney J. Brad Casey.