POUGHKEEPSIE — A 55-year-old Poughkeepsie woman is facing a staggering number of charges announced by the Dutchess County District Attorney, which accused her of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the auto shop where she used to work.
The 1,330-count indictment, announced by Dutchess County District Attorney William V. Grady on Wednesday, charges Suzanne Whitman with stealing about $715,000 from Fishkill Auto Body Shop between December 2019 and May 2022.
Whitman was arraigned Wednesday before Dutchess County Judge Edward T. McLoughlin. She was charged with one count of second-degree grand larceny, 627 counts of first-degree falsifying business records, and 702 counts of criminal possession of a forged instrument, all felonies.
Since Whitmas has a prior felony conviction, she could face five to 15 years in prison if convicted on these charges, according to a news release from Grady's office.
Grady said in the release the auto body business nearly went under because of Whitman's alleged crimes.
"The success of any business, large or small, depends on the integrity of those who are given the responsibility for financial oversight," Grady said in the statement. "The evidence in this case will show that the defendant breached that trust and nearly ruined the company by repeatedly writing checks from the company’s bank account and cashing them to fund her personal expenses, and disguised the thefts as legitimate payments to vendors.”
Whitman is accused of using the shop's QuickBooks accounting software to hide her theft. Starting in December 2019, she generated approximately 702 checks to cash, which were drawn from the body shop's commercial checking account and bore the forged signature of one of its owners, according to the indictment. She modified the QuickBooks entries on at least 627 of those checks by changing the name of the payee from "cash" to the name of a vendor the shop used, according to the indictment.
The indictment notes Whitman allegedly stole $702,399.17 in the form of unauthorized and forged checks that were written to cash.
She is also accused in the indictment of using the shop's credit card terminal to make unauthorized "point of sale refunds" to a credit card number connected to her account at Ulster Savings Bank. Prosecutors say she stole $11,765.72 from the shop using this method.
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December 08, 2022 at 05:08AM
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Dutchess County auto shop bookkeeper hit with 1,300-count indictment - Times Union
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