The former payroll administrator for an electrical services company in Pennsylvania admitted to stealing $406,000 from the business by depositing checks meant for former employees into her own accounts and then spending it on herself.
According to a report from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Raelise Ostrowski, 46, pleaded guilty last week to mail fraud in ripping off Wellington Power Corp. She had been charged in May by direct complaint.
As the payroll administrator and executive assistant to the owners, Ostrowski was in charge of authorizing per diem checks for expenses to Wellington’s employees working in California. She kept a list of employees who had left the company, prosecutors said, and caused Wellington to continue issuing the checks to them for reimbursement for housing, gas and other expenses drawn on the company’s PNC Bank account.
A U.S. District Judge set sentencing for November.