Woman embezzled 430K from employer to spend on cruises, shopping sprees

Leslie Carey, 44, of Waterloo, New Jersey, who was employed as an assistant with the Black Hawk and Bremer County Soil and Water Conservation District, received a two-year sentence yesterday for embezzling over $430,000 for various personal expenses. These expenses reportedly included cruises, online shopping, and home repairs.

Before agreeing to a plea deal, Carey was placed on paid administrative leave on December 1, 2017. She officially resigned on December 12, 2017.

Carey was employed with the district since 2007. Her daily functions, (logging receipts, disbursements, payroll, bank accounts, and reporting expenses) made her uniquely positioned to commit the wire fraud charges that she has pleaded guilty to.

When inconsistencies were noticed among Black Hawk’s six checking and six savings accounts, a state audit was conducted in 2018.

Officials with the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship helped to bring some of these financial inconsistencies to light.

The BlackHawk District primarily uses funds to conduct surveys, investigations, research on soil erosion and sediment damage, and measures meant to help conserve natural resources.

Court documents indicate that Carey began embezzling money from the district around June of 2010 and continued to do so until December 2017.

This equaled roughly $181,913 in cash withdrawals; $42,150 in credit card purchases; $63,346 in debit card purchases; $4,574 in Walmart purchases; and $3,869 in unauthorized disbursements from the districts.

In a plea agreement, Carey went on to reveal further misappropriated funds that amounted to $89,550 in transactions meant to hide her fraud; $4,076 for vendors; $26,169 for IPERS; and $14,372 for Internal Revenue Service payments.

This totaled a collective loss of $430,020 for the district.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Cole and investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture — Office of Inspector General.

Yesterday afternoon, U.S. District Judge C.J. Williams sentenced Carey to 33 months in prison in addition to ordering her to pay $430,020 in restitution. She also must serve three years of supervised release following her prison term.