Former Boise Cascade Employee Sentenced in Fraud Case

Carolyn Farrugia-Heaps, 38, of Kuna, Idaho, was sentenced today to 18 months in federal prison for two counts of wire fraud, the United States Attorney’s Office announced. Farrugia- Heaps was sentenced at the Federal Courthouse in Boise by U.S. District Judge Edward J. Lodge, who ordered her to pay $285,901.74 in restitution. After serving her prison sentence, Farrugia-Heaps will serve three years on supervised release. Farrugia-Heaps pled guilty to the charges in June 2009.

Farrugia-Heaps worked at Boise Cascade from July 2002 to October 2006. During her employment, she submitted false and fraudulent expense reports to Boise Cascade, causing the company to pay reimbursement for those expenses by direct deposit wire transfers into her personal bank account. Over a three-year period, Farrugia-Heaps submitted approximately 116 fraudulent expense reports. She created fictitious expense reports for the purchase of seminars, training programs, and software when in fact she did not purchase the items and did not register for or attend the seminars. On the fraudulent expense reports, Farrugia-Heaps added her supervisor’s signature without his permission or knowledge. Through the scheme Farrugia- Heaps defrauded Boise Cascade of over $185,000. The restitution above the $185,000 was due to the costs and lost time incurred by Boise Cascade in investigating the fraud.

Boise Cascade detected the fraud and reported it to the Boise office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI investigated the case.