A Centerville woman has pled guilty to wire fraud relating to her embezzlement of $550,000 from her employer.
According to court documents, Paula Sue Leventhal, 64, was the Chief Executive Secretary to the Chief Executive Officer for a farmer-owned cooperative headquartered in Herndon.
Leventhal’s duties included arranging travel for cooperative executives. Leventhal used credit cards issued by the cooperative to make travel arrangements, often using travel websites.
On November 30, 2015, Leventhal created a merchant account on Square, a point-of-sale platform that small businesses and other merchants can use to accept credit and debit card payments.
Square allows users to change the name of the merchant account that appears to the customer when making a payment.
From December 2015 through July 2022, Leventhal used cooperative-issued credit cards to send money to herself via Square by charging fraudulent transactions. Leventhal disguised the transactions by changing the merchant name associated with her Square account so the charges would appear as cooperative-authorized business expenses in bank statements.
Leventhal often changed the merchant name associated with her Square account to mimic travel providers and other seemingly authorized businesses.
After the funds were available in the Square account, Leventhal would transfer the money to her personal bank accounts. From December 14, 2015, until July 6, 2022, Leventhal used her Square account to fraudulently charge cooperative-issued credit cards 506 times for a total of $550,000 and transferred that amount from her Square account to her personal bank accounts in 373 increments.
Leventhal is scheduled to be sentenced on May 28 and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties.
