Bookkeeper stole $1M from SC business: feds

Karen Rhett was the bookkeeper at a South Carolina genuine estate agency for the improved part of 25 years, in accordance to federal court docket documents.

She was also embezzling from it, prosecutors claimed.

A federal decide sentenced the 59-year-outdated to 3 several years in prison on Monday, April 4, just after she pleaded guilty to felony prices last calendar year. She was also ordered to expend a few several years on supervised release and pay out restitution.

Rhett’s protection attorney did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ ask for for comment on April 6. But he explained in court docket filings that she took comprehensive obligation for the theft right after the FBI showed up at her property in Mount Enjoyable, just outdoors of Charleston, in 2020.

“Painfully, and with deep sorrow, she admits that she took advantage of her posture of believe in as a bookkeeper,” mentioned George Rutledge DuRant, who represented Rhett. “She admits that her theft was enduring and began long in the past with a comparatively little amount of cash. It escalated with time. The far more she stole, the harder it grew to become to prevent.”

In accordance to courtroom documents, Rhett labored for Simmons Realty Business, a true estate agency operate by David and Elizabeth Simmons.

“It took 3 extended yrs of tiresome investigative perform by the family and a forensic accountant (previous IRS Unique Agent) to uncover this innovative and complicated fraudulent plan,” Bart Daniel, who represented the Simmons, instructed McClatchy Information in a assertion. “The Simmons Relatives is relieved that justice has last but not least been served.”

Prosecutors explained Rhett oversaw the company’s accounting and company information and was “in a placement of trust” when she allegedly started siphoning off cash.

She is accused of transferring cash to herself, typically going the money involving other organization entities ahead of it eventually landed in her account. Rhett also produced up organization invoices for bogus bills and wrote checks to herself in advance of recording the payments as respectable, the government stated.

The Simmons finally fired her, and FBI brokers frequented Rhett at dwelling in July 2020, court files condition.

According to her legal professional, Rhett confessed to the embezzlement the following month and began cooperating with federal investigators.

“It really should be comprehended that Karen produced the conclusion to confess entirely on her possess and rapidly, in just just one week of the F.B.I. knocking upon the door of her dwelling,” her attorney mentioned.

Rhett marketed the 4,000-sq.-foot house she shared with her partner and daughter for $982,000 in December 2020, according to real estate listings. Her attorney explained she wrote a test for restitution totaling $640,633 and submitted it to the court in January 2021.

Rhett was charged by legal data and pleaded guilty to costs of wire fraud and creating false statements, court docket files clearly show. Her attorney stated she was fired from her new occupation at a holistic diet retail outlet when information of the guilty plea broke in April 2021.

Rhett subsequently began a corporation, Cupcake Bouquets by Karen, by means of which she bakes and sells “delicious and creative, mostly floral in design and style, cupcakes,” her attorney mentioned.

From August 2021 to February 2022, he mentioned, she has bought $3,648 really worth of cupcakes.

“Karen is persuaded that Cupcake Bouquets by Karen, LLC would pay for her the usually means by which she can make meaningful payments towards total restitution,” her legal professional reported in sentencing paperwork. “In terms of using on new orders and building this company as it stands now, Karen has been thorough not to acquire on way too lots of new orders or to increase way too rapidly as her imminent future is, at very best, uncertain.”

Rhett’s law firm experienced requested the choose to sentence her to a period of time of house confinement, pointing in aspect to her struggles with melancholy since the fees came to light and a current analysis of Fibromyalgia.

He also stated it is important for Rhett to be property with her 21-year-aged daughter, who has reportedly struggled with her have mental health immediately after a limited-lived job as a singer-songwriter. In accordance to sentencing files, her daughter earlier sang at “various east coast college gymnasiums and functionality halls with a message in opposition to bullying” as a teen.

Rhett submitted six letters of assistance penned by her therapist and numerous relatives customers also calling for leniency.

“Karen has endured the effects of a self-imposed sentence, shame and guilt ahead of her pals and spouse and children and the full neighborhood,” her law firm explained. “She has endured the loss of almost her just about every possession and she has experienced the constant agony of dark depression. She has been punished severely by now.”

At sentencing, the decide suggested Rhett provide her jail sentence at FPC Alderson in West Virginia so that she can acquire healthcare procedure. When she is introduced, the choose barred her from possessing any get hold of with the victims.

The amount of money of restitution she owes is detailed as “TBD” in the court docket docket.

This story was at first released April 6, 2022 6:33 PM.