Kirksville Woman Sentenced for Embezzlement

ST.LOUIS, MO—Susan Warren was sentenced to 18 months in prison on bank fraud charges in connection with her embezzlement of $140,000 from two employers, Acting United States Attorney Michael W. Reap and Knox County Prosecuting Attorney David Brown announced today.

Between June 2007 and December 2008, Susan K. Warren worked for Leehoff Auto Recycling and Pape Trucking, both of which operated out of an office in Knox City, MO. Leehoff and Pape each maintained separate business bank accounts at Town & Country Bank Midwest, in Labelle, MO. Warren maintained a personal bank account at Alliant Bank in Kirksville, MO. In August 2007 Warren began writing unauthorized checks from both the Leehoff and Pape accounts at Town & Country. Warren would write some of these fraudulent checks payable to herself and others to pay for personal expenses such as utility bills and personal debt. Warren did not have authority to write checks from these accounts to herself or to pay her personal expenses. Warren forged the signature of another employee, on some of the fraudulent checks. Warren would deposit the fraudulent checks she wrote to herself into her bank account at Alliant Bank.

Warren’s fraudulent conduct caused combined losses to Leehoff and Pape of $146,491, which Warren was ordered to repay in restitution.

“Needing money to pay for necessities such as utility bills is not an excuse to steal from your employer,” said Roland Corvington, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in St. Louis. “In this economy, the mom and pop businesses are also suffering. When they can’t pay their bills, it indirectly harms many more innocent victims.”

Warren, 40, Kirksville, MO, pleaded guilty in July to one felony count of bank fraud and appeared today for sentencing before United States District Judge Charles A. Shaw.

Reap and Brown commended the work on the case by the Kirksville Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the Adair County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office; and Assistant United States Attorney Reginald Harris, who handled the case for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.